HARWOOD 


UNIVERSITY  of  CALIFORNIA 

AT 

LOS  ANGELES 
LIBRARY 


v 


In  the  land  of  the  palms,  a  California  scene 


Copyright,  1906 
By  The  Macmillan  Company 

Set  up  and  electrotyped.    Published,    May,  1906 


JQHount  Pltaeant  jp««* 

].  Horace  McFarland  Company 

Harrifburg,  Pa. 


S52 

H 


PREFACE 

and  then,  out  of  those  explorations 
which  scientific  men  of  the  severer  type 
make  into  the  realm  of  the  unknown,  there 
may  come  something  of  direct  practical  aid  to 
the  race,  something  that  makes  the  world  move 
a  little  more  easily  in  its  grooves  ;  though  very 
many  of  the  discoveries  are  of  scientific  value 
alone,  of  interest  chiefly  to  isolated  circles 
of  great  specialists. 

There  is  another  class  of  scientists,  not  large 
but  steadily  growing,  whose  work  in  the  vari- 
ous bureaus  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture 
in  Washington,  and,  preeminently  on  the  staffs 
of  the  Experiment  Stations  of  the  United 
States,  is  not  only  admirably  scientific  in  char- 
acter and  scope,  but  of  commanding  economic 
importance.  In  the  preparation  of  this  volume, 
the  writer  has  been  under  obligation  to  this 


PREFACE 

latter  class  of  men,  both  in  the  way  of  infor- 
mation derived  from  their  publications  and  in 
the  way  of  verification  of  facts.  These  men 
are  not  only  bringing  distinction  to  their 
states,  and,  through  their  discoveries,  adding 
enormously  to  the  national  wealth,  but  they 
are  conspicuous  examples  of  a  fine  and  rich 
unselfishness. 

The  New  Earth  is  not  a  fanciful,  unreal 
place ;  for,  though  it  has  many  curious  myste- 
ries, some  yet  far  from  solution,  and  though  it 
is  now  and  then  shrouded  in  fascinating  mists, 
it  is  a  tremendously  practical  realm,  in  many 
ways,  as  I  hope  may  develop  in  the  pages  to 
follow,  the  most  commanding  in  its  practical 
influence  of  any  realm  or  any  era  in  history. 

W.  S.  H. 


VI 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  The  Old  and  the  New         ...        1 

II.  The  Brain  of  the  Earth      ...       7 

III.  Soil  Inoculation 27 

IV.  Breeding  New  Grains  .          .          .48 
V.  Plant  Development      .          .          .          .65 

VI.  The  Enemies  of  Plant -life           .          .     83 

VII.  The  Weeds  of  the  Earth    .          .          .103 

VIII.  Luther  Burbank           .          .         .          .117 

IX.  Horticultural  Progress           .          .          .129 

X.  Modern  Forestry          .          .          .         .143 

XI.  Modem  Dairying         .         .         .         .182 

XII.  Animal  Husbandry      ....  207 

XIII.  Reclaiming  the  Earth  .          .          .  232 

XIV.  The  Foods  of  the  New  Earth     .          .  252 

XV.     Cooperation 285 

vii 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XVI.  The  Selling  of  the  Surplus  .  .298 

XVII.  The  Experiment  Stations     .  .  .319 

XVIII.  Agricultural  Education        .  .  .  335 

XIX.  National  Aid       .          .         .  .  .351 

XX.  The  Importance  of  the  Farm  .  .  365 


VIM 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 


In  the  land  of  the  palms,  a  California  scene       Frontispiece 

Five  acres  of  one  of  the  famous  new  wheats  produced  at 
the  Minnesota  Station,  the  yield  being  much  above  that 
of  the  old  wheats  .  .  .  .  .  .5 

Microscopic  photograph  of  soil  of  great  fertility       .  ,          .12 

Microscopic  photograph  of  a  soil  having  no  fertility,  abso- 
lutely sterile  .  .  .  .  .  .12 

A  striking  illustration  of  soil  inoculation.  The  pots 
contain  clover.  The  first  one,  at  the  left,  has  not 
been  treated  in  any  way ;  the  next  has  no  nitrogen ; 
the  next  no  nitrogen,  but  inoculated  with  bacteria; 
the  next  no  phosphorus  ;  the  next  no  potassium ;  the 
last  has  been  fed  nothing .  .  .  .  .21 

Showing  length  of  head  of  a  new  wheat.  It  has  been 
bred  not  only  for  size  but  for  disease-resistance  and 
splendid  food  qualities  .  .  .  .  .28 

Planting -machine  for  seeds,  so  made  that  absolute  accu- 
racy is  secured  .  .  .  .  .  .37 

The  group  of  wheat  to  the  left  shows  one  hundred  average 
heads  from  a  sample  bought  for  experiment.  To  the 
right,  the  same  number  of  heads  grown  from  large 
kernels  from  medium  heads  .  .  .  .44 

To  the  left,  wheat  grown  from  large  kernels,  small  heads; 
to  the  right,  wheat  grown  from  large  kernels  from 
large  heads,  illustrating  selection  .  .  .53 

ix 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 


Fertilizing  tests  with  lettuce.  No.  1,  no  fertilizer;  No.  2, 
with  potash ;  No.  3,  potash  and  nitrogen ;  No.  4, 
potash  and  phosphoric  acid ;  No.  5,  potash,  nitrogen 
and  phosphoric  acid  .  .  .  .  .60 

Field  of  corn  bred  to  produce  a  high  percentage  of  fat,  or  oil .     69 

Covering  new  wheats  in  the  nursery  to   protect   them  from 

sparrows  and  the  weather .  .  .  .  .76 

Potato    spraying   experiments    at   the    Cornell,    New  York, 

Station.     Gain  due  to  spraying,  233  bushels  per  acre  .     85 

Planting  new  wheats  by  hand,  a  kernel  at  a  time,  in  their 

earlier  years  when  but  very  few  kernels  exist    .  .     92 

Prof.  W.  M.  Hays,  now  Assistant  Secretary  of  Agriculture, 
lecturing  on  weeds  to  a  class  at  the  Minnesota  State 
School  of  Agriculture  .  .  .  .  .101 

Making  field  notes  on  a  new  wheat.  Every  incident  in  the 
life -history  of  the  new  wheat  is  recorded  with  the 
utmost  care  ......  108 

Sieves  used  in  testing  and  cleaning  new  wheats,  with  scales 
and  record  book  .  .  .  .  ,  .111 

Chateau  on  the  Vilmorin  estate,  near  Paris,  home  of  a  long 

line  of  famous  seedsmen    .  .  .,  .  .124 

Searching  for  the  peach  root -borer    .  .  .  .   133 

A  lesson  in  winter  pruning       .  .  .  .  .140 

Date-palm  tree,  6^  years  old,  at  Tucson.  It  was  grown 
from  a  sucker.  It  is  bearing  its  third  crop  of  fruit, 
about  100  pounds  ......  149 

When  the  plums  are  ripe  in  California  .  .  .   156 

When  the  California  vineyards  are  heavy  witli  the  harvest .   165 

Windbreak    and   hedge   of  soft   maples   in  a  prairie   region 

where  forestry  is  being  taken  up  .  ..  .172 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING 
PAGE 

A  feature  of  the  coastwise  trade  of  the  Pacific — rafting  logs 

by  sea  .  .  .  .  .  .181 

Shelter -belt    of   young    Norway    pine    in    North    Dakota, 

illustrating  practical  forestry  in  a  prairie  region  .  188 

Grove  of  the  Sequoia  gigantea  grown  in  California  to  show 
that  this  noble  tree  is  worthy  of  cultivation.  The  pro- 
genitors of  these  trees,  now  growing  in  California,  are 
over  five  thousand  years  old  .  .  .  .197 

At  a  beet -sugar  factory  in  Minnesota  .  .  '.  204 

Dr.  S.  M.  Babcock,  inventor  of  the  Babcock  test  .  .  213 

Winter  school  in  stock-judging  at  Iowa  Agricultural  College  220 
Cutting  sugar-cane  in  Louisiana,  near  New  Orleans  .  229 

Prime  steers  raised  at  the  Louisiana  Station.  They  were 
immunized  from  Texas  fever  and  fed  on  black  molasses, 
rice  bran,  cottonseed  meal  and  lespedeza  hay.  They 
topped  the  Chicago  market  on  sale  .  .  .  236 

Lambs  fattened  at  the  Wyoming  Station  on  alfalfa  and 
native  hay.  Students  are  also  given  object-lessons  in 
dressing  animals  in  an  attractive  manner  .  .  245 

This  wheat,  in  California,  is  growing  upon  soil  crusted  with 
white  alkali,  originally  a  barren  desert,  but  reclaimed 
by  a  proper  cultivation  of  the  soil  .  .  .  252 

Showing  root  system  of  the  Australian  salt -bush  plant,  a 
fine  stock  food.  It  grows  on  desert  lands,  the  roots 
boring  down  through  the  hard-pan  frequently  five  feet 
for  moisture  .  .  .  .  .  .261 

Distribution  flume  of  a  Montana  irrigation  system    .  .  268 

Opening  a  branch  ot  the  Truckee  -  Carson  system  in  the 
national  irrigation  project,  June  17,  1905  .  .  277 

xi 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING 
PAGE 

Respiration  calorimeter  at  the  Storrs,  Connecticut,  Station. 
The  man  undergoing  test  as  to  food  values  lives  in  the 
respiration  chamber,  the  square  box  to  the  left  of  the 
chair,  from  five  to  eight  days  ....  284 

Grinding  corn  under  test  at  the  Illinois  Station  preparatory 
to  laboratory  tests  to  show  the  exact  food  value  of  the 
corn  .......  293 

Illustrating  the  chief  constituents  of  100  ounces  of  ordinary 
corn.  The  smallest  bottle  contains  the  ash,  1.45  per 
cent;  next  the  oil,  1.70;  next  fiber,  2.60;  next  pro- 
tein, 10.92;  next  carbohydrates,  80.35;  last  the  entire 
corn  .......  300 

In  the  library  of  the  first  cooperative  society  in  the  world — 

the  Pioneer,  of  Rochdale,  England          .  .  .  309 

Corn-harvesting  in  Tennessee  ,  316 

Looking  down  Market  street  in  San  Francisco  toward  the 
bay — the  docks  lie  to  the  right  and  left  of  the  ferry 
building  at  the  end  of  the  street.  .  .  .  325 

Loading  flour  at  Seattle  for  shipment  to  Chinese  ports  .  332 
Flour  on  the  Atlantic  seaboaid  awaiting  foreign  shipment  .  341 
Along  the  docks  in  New  Orleans  when  the  cotton  is  moving  348 
Dock  scene  in  San  Francisco  .....  357 

Looking  down  upon  an  extensive   series  of  experiments  at 

the  Cornell,  New  York,  Station   .  .  .  .364 

General  scheme  of  a  California   substation,  with  irrigation 

reservoir  in  the  foreground  ....  375 

Homeward  bound  ....  378 


Xll 


THE  NEW  EARTH 

•      "     £»';» 

CHAPTER   I 
/8SSB 

THE  OLD  AND  THE  NEW 

"TkUST-BLOWN  and  blizzard-swept,  with  a 
-*-^  lean,  weed-grown  soil  on  which  scrawny 
kine  and  stunted  crops  were  raised,  the  Old 
Earth  was  far  from  paradise.  The  cheerless, 
desolate  home,  often  untidy  and  usually  cursed 
with  food  unfit  to  eat,  the  ever-growing  moun- 
tain of  debt,  the  deadening  isolation,  the  lack 
of  opportunity  for  cultivation,  the  steadily 
growing  dislike  of  it  all,  not  infrequently  deep- 
ening into  hate, — these  were  the  things  of  the 
Old  Earth. 

The  New  Earth  is  rising  out  of  the  Old, 
—a  fine  sane  resurrection.  Broad  acres,  well 
kept  and  well  stocked;  splendidly  equipped 
buildings;  a  modern  home  with  its  good 
cheer,  its  books,  its  music,  its  culture;  a  close 
touch  with  progress;  a  balance  in  the  bank; 
the  pride  of  strong  men  and  sensible  women 

1 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

in  a  calling  as  old  as  the  human  race,  but 
never  until  now  come  into  its  own, — these 
are  the  tokens  of  the  New  Earth. 

Very  many  of  the  details  of  the  progress 
of  the  New  Eaith,  as  well  as  many  of  the 
underlying  principles  of  this  progress,  are 
seen  by  those  most  vitally  concerned  through 
vague  mists,  while  the  millions  of  the  nations, 
whose  very  existence  is  dependent  upon  the 
tiller  of  the  soil,  know  next  to  nothing  of 
all  the  marvelous  doings  of  the  generation 
just  closed.  It  is  to  set  forth  some  of  the 
great  changes  which  have  been  wrought  that 
this  volume  has  been  undertaken. 

In  a  sense  more  vital  to  the  race  than  he 
himself  knows,  the  tiller  of  the  soil  has  be- 
come the  protector  of  the  nation — the  one 
who,  in  a  very  near  and  positive  way,  keeps 
the  nation  in  the  physical  poise  essential  to 
the  best  thought  and  fiber  of  the  race.  Not 
only  does  he  feed  and  clothe  the  race,  but 
he  maintains  the  arable  globe  in  a  condition 
of  constant  service :  without  his  hand,  the 
earth  were  given  over  to  the  wilderness  and 
its  beasts.  It  is  a  colossal  undertaking  which 
is  ever  before  him, — the  care  of  the  nations. 

2 


THE   OLD  AND  THE   NEW 

It  calls  for  his  noblest  efforts.  It  enlists  the 
highest  and  best  of  his  nature.  It  has  not  in- 
frequently reacted  upon  himself,  leaving  him 
poor  in  purse  and  lean  in  hope.  He  is  the 
feeder  of  the  race,  and,  if  he  fails  to  do  his  full 
duty,  the  race  deteriorates. 

It  should  naturally  follow  that  so  important 
a  person  should  not  only  have  the  friendship  of 
the  race,  but  all  that  fine  and  constant  sym- 
pathy which  true  friendship  assures.  Quite  the 
contrary  has  been  the  case.  Until  these  later 
days  he  was  frequently  of  all  men  most  miser- 
able; neglected,  looked  down  upon;  servant 
where  he  should  have  been  master;  poor  and 
becoming  poorer;  the  prey  of  sharpers;  the 
disconsolate  follower  of  a  calling  which,  seen  in 
its  true  perspective,  is  outranked  by  no  other 
in  power,  scope,  or  service  to  mankind. 

In  the  midst  of  this  sad  predicament  science 
came  to  his  help, — that  sensible  science  of  our 
advancing  day,  which  has  for  its  ultimate  end 
not  merely  discovery,  but  application ;  which  is 
not  so  delighted  with  the  formulating  of  a  new 
law  as  it  is  overjoyed  at  the  lifting  of  a  burden. 

Then  began  that  remarkable  series  of  agri- 
cultural demonstrations  which  are  among  the 

3 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

signal  achievements  of  the  last  quarter  of  the 
century  which  has  just  closed;  a  series,  indeed, 
the  limit  of  whose  influence  is  beyond  the  scope 
of  the  imagination.  Greater  practical  progress 
in  all  departments  of  life  dependent  upon  the 
soil  has  been  made  in  fifty  years  than  in  fifty 
previous  centuries. 

Today  the  advanced  farmer,  gardener,  dairy- 
man, horticulturist  or  stock-breeder, — with  that 
steadily  increasing  number  of  men  of  means 
who  are  turning  back  to  the  earth  as  the  source, 
after  all,  of  the  highest  happiness, — is  looking 
more  and  more  eagerly  for  the  aid  which  prac- 
tical science  offers  in  the  solution  of  the  prob- 
lems of  the  New  Earth.  The  old-time  farmer 
still  exists,  often  clinging  to  the  past,  often 
knowing  no  higher  law  than  that  of  chance, 
planting,  rearing  and  gathering  his  crops  under 
the  leadership  of  luck,  ignorant  of  much  that 
he  could  have  for  the  asking,  and,  in  his  igno- 
rance, committing  the  fatal  mistake  of  entailing 
ignorance  upon  his  children.  But,  in  the  clearer 
light,  even  this  man  is  becoming  broader  in  his 
cultivation,  while  the  advanced  farmer,  keen  to 
take  advantage  of  the  signs  of  the  times,  quick 
to  adapt  his  wares  to  the  market  and  becoming 

4 


THE   OLD  AND  THE   NEW 

more  strenuous  in  his  efforts  to  protect  that 
market,  is  coming  clearly  into  his  own.  He  is 
heartily  interested  in  the  work  of  his  sons  and 
daughters,  as  they  come  back  to  the  farm  from 
the  agricultural  colleges,  brimful  of  the  things 
he  is  anxious  to  know  more  about  and  of 
which  in  his  day  of  meager  schooling  even  his 
teachers  were  unaware.  He  is  alert,  up  to  date, 
a  commanding  figure  in  his  community. 

A  generation  ago  many  a  young  man  went 
into  farming  because  his  father  was  a  farmer 
before  him,  or  because  it  was  the  one  occupation 
among  men  which  did  not  need  any  prelimi- 
nary training.  He  reaped  what  he  sowed.  Each 
succeeding  year  saw  the  granary  heaped  fuller 
of  disappointments.  Each  year  opened  with 
an  intenser  dread  of  the  future.  Each  year 
closed  with  his  wife,  his  children,  saddest  of 
all,  with  the  man  himself,  more  completely 
given  over  to  an  intense,  abiding  hatred  of 
the  farm. 

But  today  the  advanced  tiller  of  the  soil 
must  come  up  to  his  calling  as  fully  equipped 
for  service  as  the  lawyer,  the  editor,  the  doctor, 
the  captain  of  industry;  for  the  curious  fact 
has  developed  that  the  calling  in  which  the  un- 

5 


THE   NEW  EARTH 

lettered  and  untrained  man  was  once  supposed 
to  have  as  good  a  chance  as  the  educated  one, 
is  now  the  calling  in  which  wide  and  varied 
knowledge  is  as  imperative  as  in  almost  any 
other  known  among  men. 

It  will  be  seen,  as  we  go  onward,  that  many 
a  strange  and  curious  event  has  lately  come 
to  pass  in  the  realm  of  the  New  Earth.  The 
period  of  the  New  Earth  is  more  than  a  renais- 
sance, a  revival; — it  is  an  era  of  creation,  the 
most  remarkable  in  history. 


CHAPTER   II 

THE  BRAIN  OF  THE  EARTH 

WHEN  the  grass  is  wet  with  dew  and  the 
sun  is  coming  up  over  the  wide  reaches 
of  prairie  and  hill,  and  there  is  a  song  in  the 
throat  of  every  bird,  the  farmer  of  the  Old 
Earth  gives  scant  thought  to  the  soil  beneath 
his  feet,  the  most  wonderful  factor  in  the  pro- 
duction and  sustaining  of  the  life  of  the  world. 
Its  strange  functions,  the  activities  of  the  teem- 
ing life  shut  up  in  its  dark  chambers,  the  life 
history  of  the  myriads  of  workmen  in  its  silent 
factories  preparing  food  for  his  wheat  or  his 
barley  or  his  corn, — all  this  is  to  him  a  sealed 
volume.  To  him  it  is  merely  the  soil  his  fore- 
bears plowed,  the  same  soil  the  moccasined  feet 
of  the  Indians  softly  pressed  not  many  years 
gone  by, — a  little  more  shopworn,  so  to  speak, 
than  when  he  took  it  from  his  father,  but  the 
same  prosaic,  uninteresting  earth  which  he  has 
disliked  from  boyhood,  from  which  he  wrests 
sometimes  a  generous  but  more  often  a  scant 

7 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

living,  to  which  he  is  bound  by  the  chains  of 
debt. 

If  he  would  only  look  a  little  deeper,  if  he 
could  only  realize  that  it  is  no  longer  the  old 
world  of  his  forebears  but  a  new,  vital,  mar- 
velously  interesting  earth,  how  easily  might 
all  be  changed,  how  might  his  interest  be 
heightened,  and,  in  the  newer  light,  how  easily 
may  he  break  his  chains  and  set  himself  up  a 
free  man.  Instead  of  the  ancient  earth,  time- 
worn  and  rapidly  growing  infertile,  it  is  now  a 
rich,  productive  earth,  adaptable  to  all  needs; 
not  merely  a  thing  to  dig  and  plow  and  curse, 
but  a  noble  field,  throbbing  with  life  and 
fraught  with  vast  possibilities. 

But  we  need  not  too  sharply  lament  the 
ignorance  of  the  farmer  of  the  Old  Earth,  for 
it  is  only  within  a  generation  or  two  that  even 
those  who  have  studied  it  most  closely  have 
begun  to  realize, —  and  even  now  but  dimly,— 
its  character  and  its  possibilities ;  while  to  many 
of  the  millions  bred  to  the  ways  of  the  town  it 
is,  in  truth,  far  more  deeply  a  terra  incognita 
than  to  the  farmer  of  the  ancient  days.  The 
great  German  chemist  Liebig  in  the  century 
just  closed,  recognizing  from  his  vantage 

8 


THE   BRAIN   OF  THE   EARTH 

ground  somewhat  of  the  possibilities  of  an  oc- 
cupation then  in  its  infancy  so  far  as  knowl- 
edge went,  set  forth  this  principle:  "Perfect 
agriculture  is  the  true  foundation  of  trade  and 
industry;  it  is  the  foundation  of  the  riches  of 
states." 

In  a  still  more  definite  and  practical  way 
this  is  appreciated  today  by  those  who  are  giv- 
ing their  lives  to  the  service  of  the  New  Earth. 
Most  important  of  all  this  service  is  the  study 
of  the  soil,  the  fundamental  factor  in  all  the 
varied  lines  of  life  that  branch  out  from  the 
main  trunk  of  agriculture.  How  to  conserve 
this  soil,  how  to  feed  it,  how  to  restore  it  to 
life  when  dead,  what  it  is  composed  of,  how 
it  is  formed,  how  to  interpret  it,  so  to  speak, 
so  that  any  man  may  understand  it, — these 
have  been,  and  still  are,  among  the  problems 
presented. 

And  so  arose  the  study  of  soils,  enlisting  the 
closest  attention  of  the  chemist,  the  bacteriolo- 
gist, the  geologist,  the  agronomist,  all  that 
relatively  small  but  powerful  coterie  of  men 
who  are  the  investigators  and  interpreters  of 
modern  agriculture. 

Such  a  man  as  one  of  these  meets  the  farmer 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

of  the  Old  Earth  a-field  in  the  soft  spring  sun- 
shine, and  from  different  parts  of  his  field  takes 
up  samples  of  the  soil  he  is  plowing,  mixes 
them  well  together,  and  finally  takes  out  of  the 
mixture  a  tiny  amount,  not  more  than  would 
fill  a  child's  small  thimble.  He  does  not  need 
to  look  for  this  or  that  ancient  and  superstitious 
sign  of  the  soil.  He  does  not  need  to  ask  what 
were  the  implements  used  to  cultivate  the 
crops  of  former  years.  He  needs  only  to  take 
this  tiny  composite  sample  and  put  it  through 
the  processes  of  physical  and  chemical  analysis : 
—when  he  has  finished  he  can  tell  the  farmer 
whether  or  not  he  is  planting  what  he  ought  to 
plant  in  order  to  bring  the  best  results.  He 
can  tell  him  what  to  do,  or  what  not  to  do,— 
if  he  is  planting  unwisely, — in  order  to  bring 
his  broad  acres  up  to  their  highest  productivity. 
Oftentimes  his  soil  is  unbalanced  in  its  make- 
up. It  may  contain  too  much,  or  too  little 
alkaline  matter  instead  of  valuable  humus. 

Is  he  a  truck-farmer,  planting  for  the  early 
and  profitable  city  market?  Then  the  soil  for 
his  lettuce  and  peas  and  beans  and  onions  and 
radishes  must  be  of  a  certain,  well-defined 
structure, — it  must  have  at  least  one  billion, 

10 


THE   BRAIN   OF  THE   EARTH 

nine  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  particles  in  a 
cylinder  one-fourth  of  an  inch  in  diameter  and 
half  an  inch  long, — the  little  child's  thimble, 
the  approximate  measure  of  a  gram.  Is  he 
going  in  for  ordinary  summer  and  autumn  vege- 
tables,— corn  and  cabbage  and  potatoes  and 
squash  and  eggplant  and  the  delicious  small 
fruits  that  may  fill  in  many  a  spare  spot  and 
line  many  a  vacant  compartment  in  his  pocket- 
book?  Then  there  must  be  at  least  two  billion 
additional  particles  in  each  gram  of  his  soil, 
or  good  results  will  fail  to  come.  If  he  is  a 
wheat  planter,  he  may  be  sure  the  crop  will 
be  lean  and  weak  if  there  are  not  at  least  ten 
billion,  two  hundred  millions  of  particles ;  while, 
for  wheat  and  grass  lands  combined,  full  four- 
teen billion,  seven  hundred  millions  of  separate 
particles  must  be  found  in  the  little  thimble. 

If  the  farmer  has  but  just  settled  upon  his 
new  land,  ignorant  of  its  measure  of  productiv- 
ity, he  may  as  well  move  onward  to  some 
other  region  if  the  soil  beneath  his  feet  does 
not  have  at  least  one  billion,  seven  hundred 
million  of  particles  per  single  gram.  These 
minute  particles  must  also  contain  all  of  the 
elements  of  fertility  in  a  well-balanced  form. 

11 


THE    NEW  EARTH 

The  particles  in  a  single  cubic  foot  of  aver- 
age farm  soil  for  general  use,  usually  roundish 
in  shape,  expose  to  the  roots  of  plants  an  area 
of  surface  three  acres  in  extent.  To  show  how 
very  small  these  particles  are,  it  should  be 
noted  that  fully  one-half  of  the  cubic  foot  of 
soil  is  air-space,  so  that  if  it  were  not  for  the 
air  it  would  contain  twice  as  many  particles. 
If  sixty  thousand  particles  of  a  coarse  clay  soil 
were  placed  side  by  side  in  a  line,  it  would  be 
but  twelve  inches  long,  while  the  line  itself 
would  be  only  the  two  ten-thousandths  of  an 
inch  in  width. 

It  is  in  the  searching  study  of  the  soils  of 
the  earth  that  such  facts  as  these  are  developed, 
interesting  in  a  sense  because  of  their  novelty, 
but  immensely  more  interesting  because  of 
their  practical  value.  In  some  of  the  western 
agricultural  states,  for  example,  hundreds  of 
farmers  send  samples  of  their  soils  to  the 
chemists  of  the  agricultural  colleges  of  the 
states  in  order  that  they  may  test  the  soils  and 
find  out  whether  or  not  the  farmers  are  using 
them  to  the  best  advantage.  In  some  in- 
stances the  soils  are  unproductive  because  of 
excess  of  strong  alkaline  matter ;  or,  again,  the 

12 


Microscopic  photograph  of  soil  of  great  fertility 


Microscopic  photograph  of  a  soil  having  no  fertility,  absolutely 
sterile 


THE    BRAIN   OF  THE   EARTH 

soils  may  contain  an  excess  of  injurious  acid 
material.  In  each  case  the  soil  requires  a 
different  treatment.  The  chemists  and  soil  ex- 
perts, in  turn,  tell  the  farmer  what  changes  are 
advisable,  or,  in  case  the  soil  has  never  been 
cultivated,  indicate  to  the  prospective  settler 
just  what  crop  the  soil  is  best  suited  for. 

The  difference  between  soils  and  the  impor- 
tance of  understanding  this  difference  was 
brought  closely  to  the  writer's  attention  in 
preparing  a  series  of  microscopic  photographs 
to  illustrate  rich  and  lean  soils. 

Taking  a  pinch  of  earth  from  one  of  the 
richest  wheat  lands  on  the  globe,  it  was  placed 
on  a  slide  under  the  microscope.  A  knock 
from  the  finger  and  the  thickest  portion  was 
removed,  leaving  only  a  faint  dust  upon  the 
slide.  But,  faint  as  this  dust  was,  it  was  yet 
too  dense  for  photography,  so  it  was  necessary 
to  blow  hard  upon  the  glass  in  order  to  re- 
move every  loose  particle  and  leave  only  an 
almost  imperceptible  film.  And  yet,  so  mar- 
velously  rich  was  this  soil  in  vegetable-mold, 
so  near  together  the  billions  of  particles  in  a 
gram,  it  was  only  by  the  utmost  care  that  a 
photograph  could  even  then  be  made. 

13 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

Sifting  down  upon  another  slide  some  par- 
ticles from  a  sterile  soil,  in  which  there  was  no 
trace  of  fertility  save  in  those  infinitesimal 
spaces  between  the  particles  in  which  might 
still  be  found  some  vagrant  phantoms  of 
humus  and  mineral  salts,  and  blowing  like- 
wise upon  the  glass,  a  thin  coating  remained 
from  which  another  photograph  was  made. 
Looking  through  the  microscope  as  the  light 
came  up  from  the  reflector  below,  the  particles 
of  the  sterile  soil,  unlike  those  of  the  richer 
soil,  were  far  separated  from  each  other,  stand- 
ing out  like  huge  boulders  of  quartz  or  granite, 
their  many  facets  sparkling  like  brilliants. 

In  the  one  case,  the  particles,  standing  incon- 
ceivably close  to  one  another,  formed  the  rich 
soil,  the  billionaire  soil  one  might  call  it,  fer- 
tile, enduring,  abounding  in  wealth  for  the  indi- 
vidual and  the  nation;  in  the  other  case,  the 
particles  were  of  poor  quality  and  far  separated, 
the  soil  was  practically  worthless,  needing  con- 
stant supplies  of  artificial  fertilizing  material  in 
order  to  make  it  even  fairly  productive.  In 
one  case,  the  enormous  number  of  particles, 
held  close  together,  were  enabled  to  hold  mois- 
ture an  indefinite  period,  like  the  surface  of  a 

14 


THE   BRAIN   OF  THE   EARTH 

close-meshed  silken  cloth;  while,  in  the  other 
case,  the  moisture  would  run  down  between 
the  particles  like  a  stream  of  water  pumped 
through  a  coarse  sieve,  leaving  nothing  behind 
it.  The  rich  soil  would  conserve  the  moisture, 
the  poor  soil  would  waste  it. 

The  water  of  the  most  refreshing  rain  will 
rapidly  disappear  in  a  coarse,  loose  soil  like  the 
one  photographed.  And,  even  where  the  soil 
has  considerable  food  supplies,  the  water  would 
be  of  little  value,  swiftly  disappearing  and 
leaving  nothing  stored  up  for  a  day  of  drought. 
Putting  it  somewhat  contradictorily,  the  coarse 
soil  puts  by  nothing  for  a  rainy  day. 

And  water  is  all-essential  for  these  soils. 
Investigation  has  shown  that,  to  produce  an 
average  acre  of  clover  or  potatoes,  at  least  four 
hundred  tons  of  water  are  needed  for  the  sea- 
son ;  for  an  acre  of  peas,  wheat  or  oats,  three 
hundred  and  seventy-five  tons;  for  an  acre  of 
corn,  three  hundred  tons,  while,  to  bring  an 
acre  of  sunflowers  to  maturity,  at  least  six 
thousand  tons  of  water  are  needed,  twelve 
millions  of  pounds  of  moisture. 

One  English  investigator  holds  that  at  least 
six  hundred  and  fifteen  tons  of  water  is  taken 

15 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

up  in  producing  two  and  one-half  tons  of  grain. 
Ordinary  field  crops  transpire  about  three 
hundred  pounds  of  water  for  each  pound  of 
dry  matter  produced. 

This  transpiration  is  a  curious  act.  While 
much  of  the  water  that  comes  to  the  fields  is 
lost  in  the  soil  through  passing  down  between 
the  loose  particles  and  considerable  is  dissipated 
by  evaporation,  a  vast  amount  is  transpired  by 
the  plant.  That  is  to  say,  the  plant  pumps  it 
up  from  the  earth  through  its  roots  and  stem, 
uses  what  it  needs,  and  sends  the  rest  off  into 
the  air  through  its  leaves — transpires  it.  Hot 
dry  winds  may  cause  crops  to  wilt  merely 
because  the  water  suddenly  lost  by  transpira- 
tion is  more  than  the  pumping  capacity  of  the 
plant. 

Just  as  the  wheat  and  the  corn,  the  rye  and 
the  oats  of  the  farmer  are  of  little  food  value 
until  they  have  been  crushed  and  ground  and 
made  fine  and  powdery,  so  the  soil  of  the  earth 
was  valueless  until  the  all -wise  Ruler  put  his 
great  ice-mills  to  grinding,  throwing  into  the 
mighty  hopper  boulders  and  hills  of  stone,  and 
here  and  there  the  huge  slice  of  a  hoary  moun- 
tain. When  the  mills  had  finished  the  grinding 

16 


THE   BRAIN   OF  THE   EARTH 

and  had  discharged  their  product  over  the 
earth,  there  appeared  the  beginnings  of  the  soil 
of  today.  Other  agents  were  at  work  besides 
the  ice-mills  before  the  soil  was  brought  into 
proper  condition  for  the  production  of  vegeta- 
tion for  the  enrichment  or  the  adornment  of 
the  earth.  Some  geologists,  who  have  studied 
the  great  frame  of  the  earth,  have  maintained 
that  its  surface  was  once  a  massive,  unyielding 
shell  of  rock,  barren,  without  sign  of  life,  fit 
haunt  for  Death.  Out  of  this  rock  came  our 
soils,  rich  or  lean,  ground  by  the  great  glaciers, 
the  ice-mills  of  God ;  broken  up  by  the  alter- 
nate swellings  and  shrinkings  of  heat  and  cold ; 
dissolved  by  the  restless  waters  through  the 
eons  of  pre-historic  times,  the  water  wearing 
off  particles  and  transporting  them  in  solution 
to  be  deposited  on  level  plains  or  along  lake 
and  waterways;  disintegrated  by  certain  early, 
low  forms  of  vegetable  life,  which  left  deposits 
of  decayed  matter  in  among  the  grindings  of 
the  great  ice-mills, — a  mighty,  age-long  pro- 
cess, resulting  at  last  in  the  soil  of  the  earth  of 
today,  fully  furnished  and  prepared  for  the  use 
of  man. 

Here  and  there,  owing  to  an  uneven  dis- 

17 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

tribution  of  the  bran  of  the  ice-mills — the 
coarser  refuse  of  the  great  grindings  of  the 
glacial  days — appear  the  unfruitful  soils,  those 
which  contain  less  than  their  allotted  one 
billion,  seven  hundred  million  particles  to  the 
gram, — soils  that  today  are  worthless  as  they 
stand,  but  which  the  scientific  agriculturists  of 
the  future  may  yet  bring  under  the  plow,  as 
thousands  of  acres  of  barren  soil,  fertile  by 
nature  but  unproductive  because  of  the  lack 
of  moisture,  are  being  reclaimed  in  the  arid 
regions  of  the  West. 

But  there  is  still  another  important  avenue 
from  which  to  approach  the  soil  of  the  New 
Earth, — that  which  leads  through  the  mys- 
teries of  agricultural  chemistry.  The  physical 
character  of  the  soil,  its  material  form  and 
composition,  is  of  great  importance,  and  the 
immense  labor  already  performed  is  probably 
little  more  than  a  promise  of  what  shall  be 
accomplished.  It  is  the  part  of  the  agricultural 
chemist  of  today  to  determine  not  only  how 
many  and  what  kinds  of  particles  are  in  a  given 
soil,  but  what  the  soil  is  composed  of,  whether 
it  is,  or  is  not,  by  nature  fitted  for  a  certain 
crop;  what  crop  the  farmer  should  substitute 

18 


THE   BRAIN   OF  THE   EARTH 

if  he  is  on  the  wrong  track  in  his  farming; 
what  element  in  the  soil  is  lacking  if  the  soil 
is  not  up  to  average  productiveness;  how  this 
missing  element  may  be  supplied  to  the  farmer 
at  a  maximum  of  service  and  a  minimum  of 
cost.  It  is  estimated  that  the  farmers  of  the 
United  States  in  recent  years  have  paid  out  at 
least  seventy  millions  of  dollars  annually  for 
commercial  fertilizers.  In  a  generation,  at  this 
rate,  the  tillers  of  the  soil  in  this  country  are 
expending  over  one  billion,  five  hundred  mil- 
lions of  dollars  for  fertilizers.  The  greater 
portion  of  this  vast  sum  will  be  saved  to  the 
farmers,  amateur  and  professional,  as  they  come 
to  a  closer  study  of  their  soils  and  as  they 
learn  how  to  restore  when  depleted,  how  to 
avoid  such  depletion  in  the  future. 

While  the  soil,  as  physically  composed,  has 
but  comparatively  few  substances  in  its  make- 
up, being  formed  of  ground-up  rock  and 
decayed  vegetable  and  animal  matter,  as  chem- 
ically constituted  it  has  many  substances,  nearly 
seventy  elements  being  found  in  the  earth's 
crust.  Only  twelve  of  these,  however,  are  pro- 
nounced essential  to  agriculture,  while  only 
four  of  the  twelve — nitrogen,  phosphorus, 

19 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

potassium  and  calcium — are  liable  to  be  lack- 
ing in  any  given  soil.  When  any  one  of  these 
four  is  wanting,  however,  dire  results  follow. 
They  are  the  fundamental  quartette  without 
which  there  is  no  harmony  in  agriculture. 

It  is  a  part  of  the  work  of  the  agricultural 
chemist  in  these  days  to  make  analyses  of  the 
soils  sent  him,  in  order  to  determine  not  only 
their  structure  but  whether  or  not  any  of  the 
chief  parts  in  the  general  harmony  are  below 
pitch  or  are  lacking  altogether ;  or  whether  the 
soil  contains  any  injurious  materials,  as  acid 
or  strong  alkaline  substance.  There  are  scales 
for  the  weighing  out  of  small  portions  of  soil, 
so  delicately  balanced  that  they  will  weigh  a 
pencil-mark  upon  a  slip  of  tissue  paper.  Small 
portions  of  the  soil  are  thus  weighed  out  and 
then  treated  with  chemicals,  washed,  dried, 
burned,  put  to  every  sort  of  test. 

Working  in  a  chemist's  laboratory  one  day, 
I  took  a  pinch  of  the  rich  wheat-land  soil  of 
the  famous  Red  River  Valley  of  the  North, 
and  placed  it  on  a  thin  platinum  scoop  about 
as  large  as  a  silver  dollar,  holding  the  scoop 
over  an  intense  heat,  fully  1,000°  Fahrenheit. 
Swiftly  the  blue-green  flame  of  the  gas  turned 

20 


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THE   BRAIN   OF  THE   EARTH 

the  dense  black  soil  to  an  ashen  gray,  then 
from  gray  to  salmon,  and  finally  to  a  dull  red. 
Every  particle  of  the  life-supporting  nitroge- 
nous substances  of  the  soil  had  been  burned 
to  death;  there  remained  on  the  scoop  only  a 
fine  red  dust.  When  it  was  photographed  it 
had  only  a  vague  resemblance  to  the  rich  black 
particles  which  had  held  in  their  grasp  the 
marvelous  secret  of  plant  life. 

The  dark  vegetable  or  organic  substance  in 
the  rich  wheat  soil  which,  before  burning,  was 
so  hard  to  photograph — the  humus  as  it  is 
called — is  one  of  the  main  sources  of  nitroge- 
nous food  for  the  wheat  plant,  keeping  it  in 
health  from  day  to  day  and  furnishing  it  with 
strength  against  a  day  of  disease.  There  are  a 
dozen  main  items  on  the  plant's  bill  of  fare, 
but  humus,  to  supply  nitrogen,  it  must  have, 
whatever  else  it  rejects,  and  it  rapidly  loses 
strength  when  the  nitrogen  is  low  in  the 
larder. 

One  agricultural  chemist,  in  demonstrating 
the  importance  of  varying  or  rotating  the  crops 
on  a  prairie  farm,  found  out  that  a  piece  of 
wheat  land  under  continuous  wheat  culture 
lost  one  hundred  and  seventy-one  pounds  of 

21 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

one  of  the  elements  of  fertility,  nitrogen,  per 
acre  in  a  period  of  five  years,  while,  under  a 
system  of  rotation,  each  year  planting  a  differ- 
ent crop,  the  fertility  of  the  soil  not  only 
maintained  itself  but  actually  increased  by 
sixty-one  pounds  per  acre.  When  the  wheat  is 
grown  continuously,  as  in  certain  of  the  wes- 
tern states,  notably  the  state  of  Iowa  a  few 
years  since,  the  humus,  which  is  the  binding 
material  of  the  soil  holding  the  particles  to- 
gether, rapidly  decays  and  the  liberated  nitro- 
gen is  taken  up  by  the  wheat  plants,  ever 
hungry  for  food;  the  water  filters  down  be- 
tween the  loosened  particles ;  the  soil  becomes 
lean ;  the  crop  fails.  Tens  of  thousands  of  acres 
of  land  in  Iowa,  and  other  central-western 
states,  once  yielding  remarkable  wheat  crops 
suddenly  began  to  deterioriate,  then  failed 
utterly, — the  soil  had  entered  its  unanswerable 
protest.  From  a  single  farm  of  one  hundred 
and  sixty  acres  where  exclusive  wheat  farming 
is  followed,  there  is  an  annual  waste  of  fertility 
equivalent  to  twenty -eight  thousand  five  hun- 
dred pounds  of  nitrogen,  five  thousand  pounds 
of  potash,  three  thousand  pounds  of  phosphoric 
acid. 

22 


THE   BRAIN   OF  THE   EARTH 

Not  only  must  the  soil  be  studied  and  tested 
as  to  its  chemical  and  physical  properties,  but 
there  must  be  artificial  growing  of  plants  in 
the  soils  under  artificial  conditions.  After  re- 
peated washings,  a  soil  is  prepared  from  which 
has  been  taken  every  particle  of  nutriment  for 
plant-food.  To  make  sterility  absolute,  the 
soil  is  digested  in  a  powerful  acid  and  then  the 
acid  is  removed.  The  grain  to  be  tested  has 
been  sprouted  either  in  water  or  warm  sand, 
and  is  then  planted  in  the  barren  soil. 

Naturally  it  would  be  but  a  matter  of  a  few 
hours  before  the  plant  would  droop  and  die 
under r  these  conditions,  but  the  chemist  is 
ready  with  supplies  of  the  four  primary  foods 
with  which  to  feed  the  plant  in  the  sterile 
soil, — now  one  food,  now  another,  now  two  in 
combination,  now  three ;  now  ceasing  from  all 
food,  and  then,  when  the  plant  is  at  the  point 
of  death,  restoring  it  as  if  by  a  miracle  by  a 
single  meal,  seized  upon  by  the  plant  with  all 
the  eagerness  of  one  in  the  last  days  of  starva- 
tion. The  plant  is  nourished,  over-fed,  under- 
fed, or  starved  at  will.  There  is  a  strange  fas- 
cination in  these  acts  of  the  chemist,  as  when, 
for  example,  he  allows  a  plant  to  go  on  for 

23 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

four  or  five  days  without  any  lime  in  its  food. 
Hour  by  hour  the  plant,  in  its  blind,  insensate, 
ever-persistent  way,  searches  for  the  missing 
food,  and  hour  by  hour,  baffled  in  its  search,  it 
steadily  fails.  At  last,  when  five  days  have 
passed,  a  meal  of  the  long-needed  lime  is 
served,  and,  in  less  than  five  hours'  time,  the 
dying  plant  is  restored  to  life  and  soon  to 
normal  health. 

The  soil  has  been  divided  into  various  arbi- 
trary classes  according  to  the  size  of  the  parti- 
cles, among  these  divisions  being  medium  sand, 
fine  sand,  very  fine  sand,  silt,  fine  silt  and  clay. 
Prof.  Harry  Snyder,  in  his  book  on  "Soils  and 
Fertilizers,"  distributes  the  soil  particles  for 
various  crops  as  follows: 

"Potato  and  early  garden  truck,  sixty  per 
cent  medium  sand,  twenty  to  twenty-five  per 
cent  silt,  five  per  cent  clay. 

"General  truck  and  fruit  soils,  not  more  than 
forty  per  cent  sand,  ten  to  fifteen  per  cent 
clay,  forty  to  forty-five  per  cent  silt. 

"Corn  soils,  forty  to  forty-five  per  cent 
medium  and  fine  sand,  fifteen  per  cent  clay, 
forty  per  cent  silt ;  the  strongest  type  of  corn 
soils  having  the  proper  mechanical  composition 

24 


THE   BRAIN  OF  THE   EARTH 

for  the  production  of  crops  of  sorghum,  cotton, 
flax  and  sugar-beets. 

"Medium  grass  and  grain  soils,  thirty  per 
cent  each,  fine  sand,  silt  and  clay. 

"Wheat  soils,  varying  from  twenty  to  thirty 
per  cent  of  sand,  twenty  to  thirty  per  cent  of 
clay,  fifty  to  seventy-five  per  cent  of  silt." 

But  the  soil  is  something  more  than  mere 
earth.  It  is  the  home  of  unthinkable  myriads 
of  living  beings,  vast,  uncountable  colonies  of 
life.  It  is  low  life  in  its  order,  to  be  sure,  but 
it  is  as  truly  life  as  the  life  of  the  most  highly 
organized  scientist  who  works  amidst  its 
mysteries. 

In  the  burning  of  the  pinch  of  rich  soil 
upon  the  platinum  scoop  I  did  more  than 
merely  to  destroy  the  dark  humus,  for  in  a  mo- 
ment's time  I  put  to  death  more  living  things 
than  there  are  human  beings  upon  the  globe. 
In  a  normal  soil,  not  so  rich  or  full  of  life  as 
this,  more  than  one  billion,  six  hundred  million 
bacteria  have  been  found  in  a  single  gram. 
They  were  infinitely  minute,  but  they  were 
throbbing  and  pulsing  with  life  when  they 
met  death  in  the  flames. 

These  marvelous  forms  of  life  at  work  un- 

25 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

ceasingly  in  the  soil,  the  great  brain  of  the 
world,  are  in  some  ways  the  least  understood 
of  all  the  forces  of  the  earth.  They  must  be 
considered  further  in  dealing  with  soil  inocula- 
tion, the  restoration  of  worn-out  soils  by  means 
of  bacteria  brought  from  other  soils,  one  of  the 
most  curious  developments  in  the  many-sided 
life  of  the  New  Earth. 


CHAPTER   III 

SOIL  INOCULATION 

PTtHE  word  bacteria  has  come  to  have 
a  most  suspicious  appearance.  Bacteria 
have  so  long  been  identified  with  disease  and 
death  that  it  seems  difficult  to  look  upon  them 
as  of  help  to  the  race.  And  yet  they  are  of 
enormous  importance  to  every  man  who  raises 
a  flower  or  a  grain  of  wheat  or  a  tree  of  rich 
fruit. 

While  it  has  been  known  for  at  least  two 
centuries  that  these  bacteria  exist,  it  has  only 
been  since  the  opening  of  the  era  of  the  New 
Earth  that  they  have  been  studied  with  any 
degree  of  satisfaction.  They  exist  everywhere, 
in  earth  and  air  and  sea.  They  were  believed 
at  one  time  to  have  animal  life,  but  they  are 
now  almost  universally  accepted  as  low  forms  of 
vegetable  life.  Over  a  thousand  different  kinds 
are  now  known,  and  the  list  is  being  steadily 
added  to  as  knowledge  of  them  increases. 

Some  have  the  singular  power  of  cutting 

27 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

themselves  in  two,  each  divided  half  in  turn 
subdividing  itself;  and  so  they  go  on  and  on 
increasing  at  a  marvelous  progression.  They 
are  so  infinitely  small  that  it  is  impossible  to 
conceive  the  rapidity  of  their  increase  when 
they  are  in  the  act  of  multiplying  themselves. 
One  of  them,  according  to  a  bacteriologist  who 
had  studied  it  closely,  would,  if  left  to  itself, 
produce  seventeen  million  descendants  in 
twenty-four  hours.  Another  scientist  calcu- 
lates that  another  particularly  rapid  multiplier 
could  produce,  if  it  had  plenty  of  food  to  eat 
in  the  meantime,  four  thousand,  seven  hundred 
and  seventy-two  billion  progeny  in  a  single 
day.  In  three  days'  time  the  reproduction,  if 
unobstructed,  would  be  so  great  that  the  mass 
would  weigh  seven  thousand,  five  hundred 
tons. 

Some  of  the  bacteria  are  round,  some  ellip- 
tical, some  thread-like  or  spiral,  some  branch- 
ing, some  rod-like.  Each  one  has  a  central  life 
point,  which  the  word  cell  describes  as  well  as 
any  other.  When  they  divide  themselves,  each 
half  is  given  a  complete  life  of  its  own  with  all 
the  powers  and  functions  of  the  old.  They 
differ  from  the  plants  which  we  see  growing 

28 


SOIL   INOCULATION 

about  us  in  that  they  have  no  chlorophyl— 
the  green  material  which  gives  color  to  the 
plants. 

At  the  Kansas  Experiment  Station,  in  con- 
nection with  the  State  Agricultural  College, 
it  was  found  that  there  were  as  many  as 
one  billion,  six  hundred  and  eighteen  million, 
six  hundred  and  eighty-one  thousand,  eight 
hundred  and  ten  bacteria  in  a  gram  of  soil  from 
a  field  under  examination,  while  another  field 
had  only  a  few  over  a  million.  They  rapidly 
decline  in  numbers  as  you  go  down  in  the  soil, 
to  a  point  where  none  is  ever  found.  In 
a  single  gram  in  one  soil  six  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  were  found  at  eight  inches, 
five  hundred  thousand  at  nineteen  inches,  five 
thousand,  six  hundred  at  fifty-five  inches  and 
none  at  sixty-five  inches.  Another  test  made 
in  Europe  showed  one  million,  six  hundred 
and  eighty  thousand  at  the  surface  and  four 
hundred  and  ten  at  a  distance  of  six  feet  below 
the  surface. 

Many  different  families  of  these  bacteria  live 
in  the  earth,  making  their  homes  in  the  soil. 
They  help  to  decompose  it,  thus  transforming 
it  into  food.  They  draw  vast  stores  of  food 

29 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

supplies  from  the  air.  At  every  point  they  act 
as  agents  in  advancing  the  interests  of  man. 

Four-fifths  of  the  air  we  breathe  is  plant- 
food,  nitrogen,  one  of  the  most  valuable  items 
in  the  larder  of  the  crops.  Some  of  this  nitro- 
gen is  available  in  one  form,  some  in  another, 
but  it  must  all  be  put  into  such  form  that  it 
may  pass  into  the  system  of  the  plant  and  be 
utilized  in  the  building  up  of  stalk  and  leaf 
and  ripened  seed.  Upon  every  acre  of  ground 
there  are  resting  about  seventy-five  millions  of 
pounds  of  atmospheric  nitrogen,  which  gives 
some  idea  of  the  vast  store  of  food  provided 
free  of  all  cost. 

Now,  it  is  not  at  all  unlikely  that  the  farmer 
of  the  Old  Earth  looks  with  distrust  upon  such 
a  thing  as  the  inoculation  of  the  soil,  quite  as 
he  has  looked  upon  many  other  new  things 
which,  to  him,  were  but  theoretical  fads,  of  no 
practical  value.  To  spend  the  money  of  the 
state  in  bringing  native  bacteria  from  the  soil 
of  one  commonwealth  to  be  put  in  the  deple- 
ted soil  of  another,  in  order  to  restore  the 
exhausted  soil, — it  would  be  to  him  as  great  a 
waste  of  money  as  that  spent  on  the  education 
of  farmers'  sons  and  daughters. 

30 


SOIL   INOCULATION 

But  the  newer  farmer  and  gardener  and  the 
man  of  moderate  means,  who  dearly  loves  to 
have  his  garden  or  a  bit  of  wild  land  some- 
where which  he  can  subdue  and  bring  under 
cultivation,  together  with  that  constantly 
increasing  number  of  city  folk  who  have 
abundance  of  means  and  who  are  ennobling 
America  by  their  splendidly  managed  estates, 
—these  are  dwellers  upon  the  New  Earth;  to 
them  such  a  discovery  as  that  of  the  inocula- 
tion of  soils  must  come  with  a  wider  sweep  of 
interest  than  the  finding  of  a  star. 

I  saw  in  a  chemist's  laboratory  one  day 
a  series  of  pots  containing  growing  plants. 
There  was  a  section  of  the  state  in  which  the 
land  was  worn  out  by  injudicious  cropping.  In 
one  of  the  pots  was  some  of  the  depleted  soil 
from  this  region,  in  which  a  few  spears  of  clo- 
ver were  pitifully  struggling  to  grow  into  what 
would  be,  at  best,  but  a  lean  and  starved  matu- 
rity. The  plant  was  stunted,  yellow,  thriftless, 
type  of  the  plants  which  you  may  see  in  any 
soil  which  has  been  cropped  until  worn  out, 
until  it  has,  in  large  measure,  lost  its  reproduc- 
tive powers.  The  plant  was  creeping  slowly 
along  toward  a  seedless  end. 

31 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

Alongside  the  same  plant  was  a  pot  filled 
with  soil  of  precisely  the  same  character  as 
that  used  in  the  first  pot,  taken  from  the  worn- 
out  land.  It  had  not  been  cunningly  fed  by 
the  chemist  in  order  to  coax  it  up  to  thrift.  It 
had  been  given  no  advantage,  either,  in  point 
of  moisture,  heat  or  sunshine.  Precisely  the 
same  kind  of  seed  had  been  planted  in  each 
case.  But  the  plant  in  the  second  pot  was 
beautifully  green,  where  the  other  was  a  sickly 
yellow ;  it  was  tall  and  strong,  where  the  other 
was  stunted  and  weak;  it  was  thrifty  and 
respectable,  while  the  other  was  lean  and 
shiftless,  a  very  beggar  among  plants;  it  was 
hastening  on  to  a  fine  harvest,  while  the  other 
was  lagging  behind  on  its  way  to  a  withered 
immaturity. 

The  only  difference  between  the  two  was 
that  around  the  seeds  of  the  one  plant,  when  it 
was  placed  in  the  pot,  was  sprinkled  some 
earth,  plain,  simple  dirt,  brought  from  another 
state,  slightly  different  perhaps,  in  physical 
characteristics,  possibly  ground  a  bit  coarser  in 
the  ice-mills  of  the  past  eons,  possibly  a  trifle 
darker  in  hue ;  but,  to  all  intents  and  purposes, 
a  bit  of  similar  dirt. 

32 


SOIL   INOCULATION 

That  which  wrought  the  wonderful  change 
was  a  colony  of  bacteria,  low  in  the  scale 
of  life,  undistinguishable  save  by  a  powerful 
microscope,  but  living,  moving  things,  as  truly 
alive  as  the  waving  trees  or  the  green  meadows, 
or,  in  a  deep  and  solemn  sense,  as  man  himself. 

On  a  much  larger  scale  than  was  possible  in 
the  chemist's  laboratory,  similar  tests  have  been 
made  at  the  Kansas  Agricultural  College 
referred  to.  Here  soil  from  another  state  has 
been  used  to  inoculate  the  Kansas  soil  in  field 
tests.  As  in  the  case  of  the  chemist's  pots  of 
grain,  the  only  thing  done  out  of  the  ordinary 
was  to  place  the  soil  known  to  contain  the 
bacteria  around  the  seeds  at  planting.  The 
results  on  the  larger  scale  were  even  more 
wonderful. 

The  Kansas  investigators  were  working  with 
the  soy  bean,  which  is  a  fine  feeding  crop. 
Long  ago  it  was  discovered  that  certain  plants, 
as  the  beans,  clovers,  peas,  vetch,  alfalfa  and 
the  like,  form  upon  their  roots  little  bunches, 
or  tubercles,  as  they  are  called.  Nobody  knew 
what  these  bunches  were  good  for,  and  a  good 
many  thought  they  were  harmful  excrescences 
which  should  be  cut  away. 

33 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

Science  sought  out  the  meaning  of  these 
tubercles, — why  were  they  formed  on  these 
particular  plants,  what  purpose  did  they  serve, 
were  they  essential,  or  inimical,  to  the  plants? 
Investigations  showed  that  the  growths  were 
not  abnormal  but  were  necessary,  and  that  the 
plants  which  did  not  have  them  were  less 
thrifty  than  those  which  did.  More  than  this, 
it  was  found  that  the  growths  were  the  home 
of  a  tiny  organism,  a  beneficent  bacterium 
which,  working  in  some  way,  yet  shrouded  in 
mystery,  induced  this  enlargement  upon  the 
plant  roots  and  made  the  bunch  its  home.  Still 
further  investigation  showed  that  the  billions 
upon  billions  of  bacteria  who  dwelt  in  this 
little  round  home  on  the  root  of  the  plant, 
were  actively  at  work  for  man.  They  per- 
formed their  work,  it  was  found,  with  the 
utmost  skill  and  accuracy,  leaving  nothing  to 
chance  or  luck,  but  doing  all  under  a  systematic, 
judicious  law. 

The  task  of  these  bacteria  is  to  take  the 
nitrogen  from  the  mighty  reservoir  of  the  air, 
this  four-fifths  portion  of  the  entire  atmos- 
phere, and,  down  in  their  tiny  laboratories  in 
their  homes  beneath  the  surface  of  the  dark 

34 


SOIL   INOCULATION  , 

earth,  transform  it  or  adapt  it,  or  whatever 
may  be  the  process,  no  one  knows  what  the 
precise  act  is, — to  change  it  from  the  nitrogen 
of  the  air  into  the  nitrogen  suitable  to  be 
taken  up  by  the  plant. 

The  bacteria  do  not  do  this  work  merely  to 
store  up  supplies  of  nitrogen  for  their  own 
uses,  as  the  chattering  squirrel  lays  by  his  store 
of  nuts  for  the  winter's  fare.  The  bacteria  take 
the  nitrogen,  transform  it,  and  send  it  through 
the  membranes  of  the  plant  into  the  very  life 
tissue,  the  nitrogen  enriching  the  plant,  and,  at 
the  same  time,  enabling  it,  through  its  many 
tubercles,  to  become  a  storehouse  of  nitrogen 
as  well.  Down  in  the  darkness  by  night  and 
by  day,  all  through  the  life  of  the  plant  from 
sprouting  to  harvesting,  the  tiny  bacteria  are 
at  work,  needing  no  light  and  no  air  from 
above ;  for,  so  great  are  the  atmospheric  spaces 
between  the  billions  of  particles  of  the  soil 
that  there  is  a  never-failing  source  of  supply 
always  at  hand. 

Many  details  of  the  life  of  the  bacteria  yet 
remain  to  be  determined,  many  of  the  details 
in  this  marvelous  act  of  nitrogen  conversion, 
one  of  the  strangest  and  one  of  the  most  mys- 

35 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

terious  in  all  the  strange  functions  of  the 
earth.  But  the  chief  fact  of  importance  in 
present  consideration  is  that  the  once-dreaded 
tubercles  are  storehouses  of  food  for  future 
plant  uses. 

It  so  happens  that  in  certain  soils  none  of 
these  particular  bacteria  is  found.  It  was  so  in 
the  case  of  the  Kansas  soil.  So  the  attempt 
was  made  to  take  them  from  the  soil  where 
they  were,  so  to  speak,  native,  and  transport 
them. 

In  this  instance  the  soil  transported  was 
from  the  state  of  Massachusetts.  It  was  dry, 
uninteresting  dirt,  not  unlike  dust  in  appear- 
ance. For  several  years  soy  beans  had  been 
planted  on  the  farm  at  the  Kansas  College,  but 
no  nodules,  or  tubercles,  were  found  upon  the 
roots,  no  tiny  storehouses  of  the  precious  ni- 
trogen. This  was  considered  ample  proof  that 
no  bacteria  of  this  kind  were  to  be  found  in 
the  soil.  When  it  came  time  to  plant,  some  of 
the  soil  from  the  eastern  state,  a  twentieth  of 
a  pint  to  a  hill,  was  put  around  the  seeds. 
Alongside  of  these  beans,  but  sufficiently  apart 
to  insure  individuality  of  action,  other  beans 
were  planted  in  the  normal  soil  without  the 


a 

PL, 


SOIL  INOCULATION 

addition  of  the  foreign  soil.  The  experiments 
were  carried  on  in  small  plots  and  in  larger 
farm  areas  as  well. 

In  all  cases  the  results  were  the  same;  the 
beans  which  were  planted  in  the  pinch  of 
Massachusetts  soil  produced  roots  abounding 
in  tubercles,  while  those  planted  under  pre- 
cisely similar  conditions,  but  without  the  eas- 
tern soil,  produced  no  tubercles.  It  was  found 
in  greenhouse  tests  that  the  bacteria  began 
their  work  of  storing  up  nitrogen  very  soon 
after  the  sprouting  of  the  seed,  increasing  their 
activity  as  the  roots  began  to  develop.  When 
the  beans  were  fairly  well  advanced,  some  of 
the  hills  were  dug  up,  about  two  cubic  feet  of 
soil  being  taken  up  with  each  hill.  After  a 
thorough  washing,  tubercles  were  found  in 
large  numbers  upon  the  plants  which  had  been 
inoculated,  but  not  one  upon  the  plants  which 
had  not  been  inoculated. 

In  order  to  find  out  whether  or  not  the  soil 
once  inoculated  would  become  of  itself  a 
medium  for  further  inoculation,  experiments 
were  undertaken  with  the  Kansas  soil  in  which 
the  beans  had  been  grown,  and  proof  was  soon 
at  hand  that  the  home  soil,  once  inoculated, 

37 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

was  just  as  effective  as  the  imported  soil.  It  is 
probable,  also,  that  the  soil  once  inoculated 
always  remains  so. 

While  the  difference  in  the  yield  at  first  was 
not  large,  the  plants  bearing  tubercles  were 
superior  to  those  not  having  them,  both  in  seed 
and  fodder.  The  plan  of  scattering  the  inocu- 
lated soil  upon  the  surface  of  the  ground 
proved  an  utter  failure.  The  soil  containing 
the  bacteria  must  come  in  contact  with 
the  seeds.  Beans  planted  with  one  thousand 
pounds  of  Massachusetts  soil  scattered  broad- 
cast showed  an  average  of  only  seven  tubercles 
per  twenty  plants,  while,  when  the  beans  were 
put  in  with  drills,  with  only  three  hundred  and 
seventy-five  pounds  of  the  infected  soil  per 
acre, — the  infected  soil  coming  into  contact 
with  the  seeds, — the  tubercles  averaged  thirty- 
five  per  twenty  plants.  Where  the  Massachu- 
setts soil  was  spread  more  thickly  in  the 
bottom  of  the  drill  furrow  and  the  seed  dropped 
upon  it,  twenty  average  plants  grew  five  hun- 
dred and  nine  tubercles,  a  single  plant  bearing 
seventy-one  and  another  sixty-nine. 

But  still  more  important  than  all  this  is  the 
fact  that  the  tubercles  upon  the  roots  of  the 

38 


SOIL   INOCULATION 

plants  are  soil-restoratives.  They  are  fertilizers 
of  the  most  approved  type.  They  bring  nitro- 
gen to  the  soil  and  they  take  no  element  of  fer- 
tility from  it.  When  a  certain  cereal  has  been 
planted  for  a  series  of  years  upon  a  given  soil, 
as  in  the  case  of  wheat,  the  nitrogen  becomes 
exhausted  because  of  the  exacting  demands  of 
the  wheat  plant  and  the  soil  refuses  longer  to 
produce  a  crop;  it  is  worn  out.  The  land  is 
abandoned  for  wheat  culture — possibly  it  lies 
fallow  for  years.  It  is  the  part  of  the  benefi- 
cent bacteria,  abounding  in  the  tubercles  on 
the  roots  of  the  peas  or  beans  or  clovers,  to 
supply  the  waste  nitrogen  to  the  soil,  taking 
the  free  nitrogen  of  the  vast  reservoir  of  the  air 
and  converting  it  into  the  proper  form  for  as- 
similation by  the  plant.  In  the  case  of  the  soy 
bean  planting  in  Kansas,  the  beans,  where 
there  were  no  tubercles  upon  the  roots,  kept 
on  exhausting  the  soil  as  any  other  crop  would, 
but  as  soon  as  the  bacteria  were  introduced, 
inducing  the  growth  of  the  tubercles,  the 
exhaustion  of  the  soil  was  checked,  the  soil 
became  enriched. 

In  the  one  case,  the  farmer  of  the  Old  Earth 
would    keep    on    planting    crop    after    crop, 

39 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

steadily  reducing  the  yield  until,  at  last,  the 
soil  was  worn  out  and  ruin  stared  him  in  the 
face.  Now  it  appears  feasible  for  him  to  restore 
his  soil  nitrogen  simply  by  inoculation. 

In  this  connection  it  is  of  interest  to  note 
that  the  Department  of  Agriculture  in  Wash- 
ington has  begun  the  work  of  sending  out 
bacteria  for  inoculating  the  soil  direct. 

Certain  plants  bearing  root-nodules,  the 
leguminous  plants,  have  long  been  used  as 
green  manure,  the  farmer  plowing  under  the 
green  plants  in  order  that  the  soil  might  be 
enriched  through  the  rich  deposits  of  nitroge- 
nous matter  coming  from  the  decaying  roots, 
and  stored  up  by  the  bacteria  from  the  nitro- 
gen of  the  atmosphere.  But  in  case  the  plants 
have  no  nodules  upon  their  roots,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  soy  bean  in  Kansas  before  inocula- 
tion, such  plants  are  of  no  more  value  for 
plowing  under  as  a  green  manure  than  any 
other  grain  or  grass.  Curiously  enough,  it  may 
be  noted  in  passing,  the  bacteria  of  the  differ- 
ent legumes,  as  peas  and  clovers,  are  different, 
the  bacteria  of  one  plant  refusing  to  make  its 
home  upon  the  roots  of  another,  and  vice 
versa. 

40 


SOIL   INOCULATION 

In  Alabama,  one  of  the  great  cotton-pro- 
ducing states,  the  cow-pea,  another  legume, 
is  in  much  favor  as  a  green  manure.  The  dan- 
ger of  soil  exhaustion  has  long  been  imminent, 
indeed  its  disastrous  results  have  been  severely 
felt.  At  the  experiment  station,  in  connection 
with  the  state  agricultural  college,  the  subject 
of  soil  inoculation  has  been  under  considera- 
tion for  several  years.  It  was  recognized  that 
cow-peas  have  the  power  not  granted  to  wheat, 
corn,  oats  and  other  cereals  which  must  take 
their  supplies  from  the  earth  through  their 
roots.  It  was  recognized,  also,  that,  without 
the  nodules  upon  the  roots  of  the  cow-peas 
they,  like  the  other  legumes  bearing  no  tuber- 
cles, had  no  advantage  over  the  near-by  cotton, 
or  the  grasses  or  grains.  The  value  of  the 
cow-pea  as  a  renovator  of  the  soil  was  recog- 
nized, but  a  legume  was  needed  which  could 
be  planted  in  the  winter,  which  would  not  only 
add  nitrogen  to  the  soil  when  plowed  under 
in  the  spring,  but  would  prevent  the  winter 
rains  of  the  South  from  washing  the  soil  and 
leaching  out  nutriment. 

Another  of  the  legumes  is  called  hairy 
vetch,  a  vine-like  plant  valuable  for  fodder, 

41 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

for  hay  and  pasturage,  and  for  plowing  under 
for  green  manure  to  restore  the  soil.  It  was 
found  that  satisfactory  results  could  not  be 
obtained  because  of  the  absence  from  the  soil 
of  the  bacteria  which  make  their  home  upon 
the  vetch.  So,  from  a  garden  in  which  had 
once  been  grown  the  common  vetch  which 
had  had  the  nodules  upon  its  roots,  a  supply 
of  earth  was  taken,  mixed  up  with  water  and 
allowed  to  settle.  Seed  of  the  hairy  vetch  was 
then  dipped  in  the  water  and  planted. 

The  result  of  this  liquid  inoculation  was 
remarkable.  Two  plots  were  planted,  one  with 
inoculated  seed,  one  with  uninoculated.  In 
January  the  plants  which  had  been  treated 
were  standing  strong  and  thrifty,  a  rich  green 
in  color,  while  the  plot  not  inoculated  was 
sere  and  brown.  The  roots  of  the  inoculated 
plants  were  well  supplied  with  nodules,  while 
the  non-inoculated  plants  bore  not  a  single 
tubercle.  In  the  latter  part  of  May,  at  har- 
vest time,  the  inoculated  plot  was  so  heavy 
in  its  growth  that  it  had  to  be  cut  with  a 
scythe,  while  the  other  was  so  short  that  a 
sickle  was  used.  On  the  plots  inoculated  with 
the  bacteria  from  the  garden  soil,  not  only  were 

42 


SOIL   INOCULATION 

there  numerous  nodules  upon  the  roots,  but 
the  upper  part  of  the  plants  above  ground  aver- 
aged about  three  feet  in  height ;  few  branches 
of  the  non-inoculated  plants  were  as  long 
as  eight  inches.  The  two  soils,  aside  from  the 
inoculation,  were  treated  in  precisely  the  same 
way.  In  green  forage,  the  inoculated  plot 
yielded  nine  thousand,  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
six  pounds  per  acre;  the  one  not  inoculated, 
nine  hundred  pounds.  In  cured  hay,  the  inocu- 
lated yielded  two  thousand,  five  hundred  and 
forty  pounds;  the  other,  two  hundred  and 
thirty-two  pounds.  The  increased  yield  of  hay 
was  nine  hundred  and  ninety-five  per  cent, 
due  to  inoculation.  Other  tests,  taking  soils 
from  different  parts  of  the  state  and  submit- 
ting them  to  laboratory  growing,  abundantly 
proved  the  wonderful  advantage  of  inocula- 
tion. Pot  experiments  were  carried  on  with 
crimson  clover,  also  a  plant  which  had  largely 
failed  in  Alabama.  On  thirty  farms  the  clover 
had  been  tried  with  unsatisfactory  results,  and, 
in  the  majority  of  cases,  the  roots  examined 
showed  a  total  absence  of  tubercles.  A  few 
specimens  showed  a  very  few  quite  small 
tubercles.  The  crimson  clover  on  the  farm  of 

43 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

the  agricultural  college  was  a  complete  failure 
and  no  tubercles  appeared  upon  the  roots. 
The  failure  was  pronounced  a  case  of  nitrogen- 
hunger.  Inoculation  was  then  tried,  and  the 
results  were  wholly  satisfactory.  On  soil  from 
a  cotton  field  which  had  been  cleared  twenty 
years  the  gain  was  seventy-one  per  cent;  soil 
five  years  cleared,  seventy -four  per  cent; 
woodland,  three  hundred  and  twenty-six  per 
cent.  The  average  of  all  the  soils  showed  an 
increase  due  to  inoculation  of  one  hundred 
and  fifty-eight  per  cent  in  tops  and  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty-eight  per  cent  in  roots. 

Extensive  tests  have  for  several  years  been 
under  way  in  Illinois  at  the  state  experiment 
station  as  to  the  importance  of  bacteria  in 
producing  the  plant-food.  Experiments  were 
made  with  various  legumes,  among  them  cow- 
peas,  soy  beans,  red  clover,  alfalfa  and  sweet 
clover.  Emphasis  was  laid  in  these  tests  upon 
the  fact  that  these  plants,  and  others  of  their 
class  which  are  known  to  restore  fertility  to 
soils,  do  not  take  their  nitrogen  from  the  air 
but  are  given  it  by  the  bacteria,  which  take  it 
from  the  air  and  convert  it  into  food  for  the 
plants.  With  the  inexhaustible  supply  of  ni- 

44 


C.   a: 


t>   2 
"c.  ? 


*•  y 
|J 

-     3 

""   5 


11 


-=    Si 


if. 


SOIL   INOCULATION 

trogen  in  the  air  and  with  the  bacteria  ready 
at  hand  to  take  it  up  and  feed  it  to  the  plants, 
man  has  a  service  without  cost  as  significant 
in  value  as  it  is  wonderful  in  character.  The 
work  done  in  Illinois  has  been  remarkably  suc- 
cessful. It  has  been  a  practical  demonstration 
of  the  value  of  this  new  discovery  in  the  realm 
of  the  New  Earth.  These  conclusions,  among 
many  others,  have  been  reached  in  Illinois ; 
they  illustrate  the  comprehensiveness  of  the 
work  which  is  being  carried  on : 

Soil  nitrogen  cannot  be  used  by  plants 
until  it  is  changed  to  the  form  of  nitrate  nitro- 
gen by  the  nitrifying  bacteria. 

Atmospheric  nitrogen  cannot  be  used  by 
any  agricultural  plants,  excepting  legumes, 
and  even  leguminous  plants  have  no  power 
to  obtain  nitrogen  from  the  air  unless  they 
are  provided  with  the  proper  nitrogen-gathering 
bacteria. 

As  a  rule,  each  important  agricultural 
legume  must  have  its  own  particular  species 
of  bacteria. 

In  general  agriculture  in  Illinois,  whether 
it  be  grain-farming  or  ordinary  live-stock  farm- 
ing, the  growing  of  legumes  is  absolutely 

45 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

essential  as  a  part  of  any  economic  system 
which  shall  maintain  the  fertility  of  the  soil ; 
and  for  the  successful  growing  of  legumes  the 
presence  and  assistance  of  the  proper  species  of 
nitrogen-gathering  bacteria  are  also  absolutely 
essential." 

While  other  methods  of  restoring  depleted 
soils  may  not  at  once  be  abandoned,  and  while 
sensible  rotation  of  crops  will  still  be  followed, 
yet  enough  has  already  been  demonstrated 
to  show  that  soil  inoculation  is  preeminently 
practical,  although  before  successful  inocula- 
tion can  be  secured  all  other  essential  condi- 
tions of  the  soil  must  be  supplied.  Soils,  like 
gold  mines,  are  liable  to  become  exhausted 
after  long  working.  For  a  number  of  years, 
like  the  mines,  they  may  yield  a  large  income, 
for  several  years  longer  they  may  pay  ex- 
penses, but  there  comes  a  year  when  the 
farmer,  like  the  gold  miner,  cannot  make  both 
ends  meet  out  of  the  profits  of  his  investment. 
Here,  however,  the  likeness  ends, — the  farmer, 
unlike  the  miner,  may  put  back  the  gold 
into  his  acres. 

Artificial  nitrogenous  fertilization  in  a  sense 
is  like  the  miner's  restoration  of  his  mine 

46 


SOIL   INOCULATION 

by  means  of  other  gold — at  the  best,  a  make- 
shift. Restoration  of  nitrogen  through  bac- 
terial agency  is  simpler  than  fertilization, 
more  sensible,  natural,  wholly  feasible,  im- 
measurably cheaper.  It  is  one  of  the  most 
significant  contributions  the  New  Earth  has 
made  to  man. 

While  it  is  a  wonderful  act,  this  creation 
of  a  soil  to  fit  a  plant,  it  is  a  still  more  won- 
derful thing  to  create  a  plant  to  fit  a  soil. 


CHAPTER    IV 

BREEDING    NEW   GRAINS 

*  1 1  HERE  is  something  distinctly  alarming 
-*-  in  the  thought  of  a  period  of  world  star- 
vation slowly  but  surely  and  relentlessly  ap- 
proaching, when  the  earth  will  not  be  able  to 
support  the  race.  Some  who  have  noted  the 
steady  wasting  of  the  soils  where  cereals  are 
grown  each  succeeding  year  in  a  new  country, 
resulting  in  a  gradual  reduction  in  the  yield  of 
these  crops  from  the  first  year's  yield  upon  the 
virgin  soil,  have  predicted  this  period,  not  so 
very  far  distant,  either, — a  time  when  there 
would  not  be  enough  bread  to  go  around. 
Some  of  these  predictions  have  come  from 
high  authorities. 

While  enough  has  been  developed  in  the 
restoration  of  worn-out  soils  to  show  that  such 
a  period  as  this  must  be  so  long  postponed  as 
to  remove  it  from  the  need  of  serious  consider- 
ation, still  more  has  been  demonstrated  in  the 
creation  of  new  wheats  and  corns  to  take  the 

48 


BREEDING   NEW  GRAINS 

place  of  old  and  unsatisfactory  ones.  The  crea- 
tion of  new  and  better  cereals,  one  of  the  mas- 
ter acts  of  the  men  of  the  New  Earth,  has  not 
been  effected  primarily  for  the  overthrowing  of 
the  arguments  of  the  alarmists,  but  such  crea- 
tion does,  nevertheless,  to  a  great  extent  refute 
their  arguments.  These  improved  cereals  have 
been  successfully  made ;  they  are  now  in  actual 
service.  They  show  us  that  we  are  still  in  the 
minimum  stage  of  the  development  of  our  re- 
sources, that  the  earth  has  not  yet  reached  the 
shadow  of  its  maximum  of  food  production. 

The  creation  of  a  new  wheat  or  corn  having 
greater  nutritive  powers  than  the  old  estab- 
lished varieties,  capable  of  better  withstanding 
drought  and  disease  and  insect  pest,  bred  to 
produce  a  larger  yield  per  acre  than  the  thrif- 
tiest rival  in  the  fields, — such  an  act  as  this  is 
alone  sufficient  to  overthrow  an  army  of  alarm- 
ists. Such  an  act  as  this,  even  if  confined  only 
to  the  limits  of  the  chemist's  laboratory  and 
greenhouse,  would,  by  its  immense  suggestive 
powers,  be  sufficient. 

But  this  work  has  not  been  so  restricted.  It 
has  been  carried  forward  into  the  actual  field 
of  farm  operations.  New  wheats  have  been 

49 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

created  not  only  showing  larger  yields  and  as 
great  nutrition  in  experimental  plots,  but  in 
the  thousand-acre  farm  of  the  advanced  Amer- 
ican agriculturist  as  well.  More  than  this, 
wheats  have  been  bred  to  fit  a  climate,  redeem- 
ing vast  areas  of  abandoned  land  supposed  to 
be  wholly  unfitted  for  wheat  production. 

New  corns  have  been  created,  far  richer  in 
food  values,  far  larger  in  yield,  than  the  best 
known  types  of  the  past.  More  than  this,  corns 
have  been  created  at  the  command  of  man  for 
any  one  of  a  series  of  specific  purposes, — to  be 
rich  in  one  element  and  lean  in  another,  to  be 
suitable  for  food  of  man  or  food  of  beast.  They 
are,  in  a  word,  as  much  the  creation  of  man  as 
the  beautiful  vase  in  the  hand  of  the  potter. 

All  this  has  not  been  accomplished  in  a  day. 
It  has  not  been  effected  without  large  outlay 
of  time  and  energy,  It  has  been  accomplished 
after  many  and  crushing  disappointments.  To 
create  a  new  wheat,  bringing  into  life  a  plant 
before  unknown  to  the  world  is  a  primal  act. 
Select  from  a  race  of  food-providers  two  factors 
unable  in  themselves,  or  through  the  aid  of 
nature,  to  produce  other  than  a  certain  progeny; 
then,  setting  aside  the  customs,  indeed  the  laws, 

50 


BREEDING   NEW  GRAINS 

of  nature,  compel  these  two  to  become  the 
head  of  a  new  race, —  does  it  not  suggest  some- 
thing of  the  mystery  of  the  miracle-makers? 
For  years  the  wheat  crop  in  the  great  cereal- 
producing  regions  of  America  has  steadily  de- 
clined in  yield,  and,  where  it  has  not  declined, 
it  has  steadily  fluctuated.  Gradually,  as  civili- 
zation has  pressed  westward,  wheat-raising  as  a 
chief  factor  in  farm  life  has  been  abandoned, 
until  today  the  vast  areas  of  western  Canada 
are  looked  to  as  the  last  source  of  wheat  supply 
upon  the  continent.  Even  here  the  virgin  soil 
soon  begins  to  fall  away  from  its  huge  initial 
yields.  While  lack  of  intelligent  farming  has 
had  something  to  do  with  this,  and  while  the 
depletion  of  a  once  rich  soil  has  been  respon- 
sible for  its  share  of  the  loss,  yet  to  these  alone 
cannot  be  given  all  the  blame. 

The  wheat  is  a  self-fertilizing  plant,  preserv- 
ing its  identity  through  the  centuries,  never 
changing  to  a  new  form,  never  reverting  to  an 
old  type,  but  reproducing  itself  from  age  to  age. 
But  it  may  change  in  character,  the  wheat  of 
one  season  from  the  same  kind  of  seed  may  be 
inferior  to  that  of  another  season,  there  may 
be  a  gradual  loss  of  food -strength  and  general 

51 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

stamina.  Just  so  races  deteriorate  left  long  to 
themselves  with  no  inflow  of  foreign  blood. 
People  who  intermarry  notoriously  within  the 
families  of  blood,  must  count  on  a  deficient 
progeny.  Diversity,  change,  admixture — all 
have  their  part  to  play  in  the  preservation  of  a 
powerful  people. 

The  wheat,  however,  has  no  power  of  choice. 
It  cannot  cross  itself  with  another  and  stronger 
life.  It  has  no  recourse  to  artificial  means  by 
which  it  may  start  out  fresh  upon  a  dominant 
career.  The  wheat  flower  opens  in  the  dull 
gray  dawn  while  the  world  is  asleep,  drops  its 
pollen  upon  its  own  stigma,  fertilizes  itself, 
goes  on  forever  reproducing  itself  while  the 
centuries  last.  It  has  been  claimed,  though  the 
claim  has  been  disputed  by  scientists,  that 
wheat  preserved  in  a  mummy's  tomb  three 
thousand  years  will,  when  planted,  produce 
splendid  grain,  and  that  kernels  from  the  same 
wheat  planted  a  thousand  years  from  now 
must  ripen  the  same.  However  this  may  be,  a 
wheat  in  harvest  from  the  dawn  of  Christianity 
until  this  'present  day,  would  never  of  its  own 
initiative  have  changed  in  type. 

But  man  enters;  the  wheat  is  transformed; 

52 


BREEDING   NEW  GRAINS 

a  new  and  powerful  factor  comes  into  the  life 
of  the  world, — it  is  the  working  of  a  modern 
miracle,  the  creation  of  a  new  grain,  one  of  the 
marvels  of  the  life  of  the  New  Earth. 

There  are  two  chief  factors  in  the  work,— 
breeding  and  selection.  In  the  early  dawn  the 
pollen  is  taken  from  the  flower  of  one  kind  of 
wheat  and  placed  upon  the  stigma  of  another 
wheat;  from  them,  judged  by  their  past  his- 
tory, a  stronger  life  than  either  parent  should 
come.  It  may  not  so  turn  out,  however,  for, 
out  of  hundreds  of  wheats  created,  by  far  the 
larger  number  are  destroyed  as  not  being  better 
than  their  forebears.  When  the  operator  has 
successfully  sprinkled  the  pollen  upon  the 
stigma,  he  ties  up  the  head  in  a  hood  of  tissue 
paper  to  ward  off  pilfering  birds  and  insects; 
the  flower  itself,  as  day  comes  on,  closes  up 
and  holds  fast  within  itself  its  precious  secret. 
From  the  union  of  the  two  wheats  may  come 
a  third  of  commanding  power,  one  which  shall 
revolutionize  the  wheat-growing  of  a  continent 
and  become  a  significant  factor  in  the  com- 
merce, no  less  than  the  dietary,  of  the  world. 

This  work  of  breeding  new  wheats  began 
long    years    ago    in    Europe.    Thousands    of 

53 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

wheats  have  been  made  since  the  first  success- 
ful test.  One  seedsman  in  the  city  of  Paris 
has  produced  over  three  thousand  wheats,  and 
I  have  seen  hundreds  upon  hundreds  of  these 
wheats  in  great  cases  in  the  laboratory  of  this 
seedsman  upon  his  estate  near  Paris,  not  one 
of  them  of  any  value  to  the  world  save  as  it  is 
a  record,  a  proof  that  no  good  wheat  will  be 
likely  to  come  from  the  parents  from  which  it 
descended.  For,  out  of  the  thousands  of  wheats 
which  have  been  created,  few  have  ever  been 
found  better  than  their  parents, — thousands 
have  been  worse. 

It  is  these  few,  these  individual  instances,  the 
one  new  wheat  of  ten  thousand,  which  is  worth 
all  the  years  of  labor.  This  new  wheat,  larger 
in  yield  than  its  predecessors,  as  rich  (or  richer) 
in  food,  as  strong  (or  stronger)  to  resist  disease, 
will  go  on  reproducing  itself  indefinitely,  to  the 
end  of  time ;  it  will  not  be  changed  save  at  the 
decree  of  man. 

But  it  is  so  slow,  so  very  slow  in  reaching 
the  period  when  anything  definite  can  be  said 
about  it  as  to  its  relative  value  alongside  of 
the  older  wheats.  A  new  race  of  wheat  begins 
with  a  single  kernel.  The  first  year  this  kernel 

54 


BREEDING   NEW  GRAINS 

will  produce  but  a  few  grains.  These  must  be 
gathered  from  the  single  hill  with  the  utmost 
care  and  only  the  best  ones  kept  for  future 
tests.  All  through  the  life  of  the  succeeding 
kernels  from  the  parent  wheat  it  is  a  constant 
succession  of  selections.  Another  year  must 
elapse  before  the  tiny  harvest  of  this  one  ker- 
nel of  wheat  may  be  garnered, — it  is  still  a 
fairy's  harvest.  But  year  by  year  it  grows  until 
at  last  it  passes  out  of  the  realm  of  the  fairy,— 
it  has  become  the  get  of  a  giant.  Perhaps  at 
the  end  of  ten  years  there  will  be  enough  of 
the  new  wheat  to  plant  the  twentieth  of  an 
acre;  then  the  progression  becomes  far  more 
rapid,  the  results  more  tangible. 

But,  before  this  period  is  reached,  it  is  far 
more  than  likely  that  the  experimenter  has 
found  out  that  the  new  wheat  is  no  better  than 
the  old,  no  larger  in  yield,  no  stronger  to  with- 
stand disease,  no  richer  in  food  than  the  parents 
from  which  it  sprang.  Indeed,  more  than  this, 
he  may  find  that  the  new  wheat  is  far  inferior 
to  the  old,  and  all  the  years  of  patient  study 
and  care  have  gone  for  naught. 

Other  wheats,  however,  at  the  same  time, 
have  been  traveling  the  same  road  up  through 

55 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

the  decade,  and  possibly,  out  of  them  all,  one 
will  be  found  better  than  the  old.  It  is  this 
one  which  is  so  eagerly  sought,  for  which  no 
sacrifice  of  time  and  patience  is  too  great.  All 
through  the  years,  the  life-history  of  the  wheat 
is  noted  with  the  utmost  care.  Each  wheat, 
and  its  progeny,  is  kept  separate  from  all 
others.  Every  event  in  its  life  is  recorded  in  a 
specially  prepared  book.  Its  yield,  figured  out 
with  mathematical  precision  in  acre  measures, 
its  weight,  its  color,  the  character  of  the  food 
stored  up  in  its  brown  kernel,  the  height  of 
the  stalk,  the  depth  of  the  root,  the  manner 
in  which  it  has  withstood,  or  yielded  to,  the 
attacks  of  disease, — all  these  points  and  others 
must  be  recorded  with  infinite  pains;  at  no 
place  may  there  be  a  missing  link  in  its  history. 
Breeding  and  selecting  go  hand  in  hand  in 
the  work.  The  selection  consists  in  preserving 
only  the  best, — it  is  a  rigid  system  of  exclu- 
sion, by  which  the  poorer  wheats  are  constantly 
eliminated.  It  begins  with  the  kernels,  only 
those  of  the  choicest  types  being  preserved. 
It  continues  all  through  the  growing  of  the 
wheat  into  the  harvesting,  so  that  at  the  end 
of  a  given  test  the  wheat  comes  forth  a  fine 

56 


example  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest  by  means 
of  man's  direction.  The  utmost  care  is  taken 
to  make  the  wheat  strong  at  all  points.  Not 
only  must  it  be  better  than  its  ancestors  in 
point  of  resistance  to  disease  and  in  increase 
of  yield,  but  it  must  run  the  gauntlet  of  the 
severest  chemical  and  milling  tests  in  order 
that  its  food  value  may  be  determined.  If  it 
fails  here,  it  is  discarded,  no  matter  how  much 
it  may  be  otherwise  better  than  its  forebears. 

From  the  investigations  and  tests  which 
have  already  been  made,  it  appears  evident  that 
the  wheat  yield  of  the  entire  world  is  to  be 
increased  enormously,  in  the  aggregate,  by  this 
creation  of  new  wheats.  In  many  cases,  when 
the  new  wheats  bred  for  the  hard  wheat 
regions  of  the  Northwest  have  been  given 
actual  field  tests,  the  results  have  shown  gains 
of  from  two  to  five  bushels  per  acre;  often  the 
yield  has  been  much  greater.  In  instances,  the 
new  wheats  have  averaged  as  high  as  forty- 
seven  bushels  per  acre,  while  the  average  yield 
of  the  old  wheats  alongside  them  and  through- 
out the  states  of  Minnesota,  and  North  and 
South  Dakota  has  been  from  twelve  to  fifteen 
bushels  per  acre.  In  the  days  when  the  soil  of 

57 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

the  northwestern  states  was  virgin,  before  ex- 
hausted by  successive  wheat  cropping,  the 
average  yield  was  frequently  close  to  the  high- 
est now  shown  by  the  new  wheats.  One  of 
the  new  wheats,  which  has  for  years  been 
under  test  in  the  State  Experiment  Station  of 
Minnesota,  where  very  important  work  has 
been  done  in  this  line,  has  now,  1906,  been  dis- 
tributed so  thoroughly  as  to  cover  at  least  a 
million  of  acres,  another  wheat  covers  nearly 
a  million  acres,  and  still  another,  all  bred  at 
this  station,  approaches  a  half-  million  acres. 
It  is  estimated  that  these  new  wheats,  together 
with  new  and  improved  varieties  of  oats,  bar- 
ley and  flax  bred  at  this  station,  will,  ere  long, 
cover  nearly  or  quite  twenty  millions  of  acres, 
adding  several  dollars  per  acre  to  the  yield  of 
the  crops.  Two  thousand  new  hybrid  wheats 
are  now  under  test  at  the  Minnesota  station. 
If  the  wheat  crop  of  the  United  States  alone 
should  be  increased  by  but  three  bushels  per 
acre,  at  least  one  hundred  millions  of  dollars 
per  year  would  be  added  to  the  national 
wealth,  while  the  world  at  large  would  be 
richer  by  about  five  hundred  and  sixty  millions 
of  dollars  per  year  with  the  same  increase. 

58 


BREEDING   NEW  GRAINS 

The  actual  demonstrations  upon  farms  where 
the  new  wheats  have  been  raised  take  the 
matter  out  of  the  realm  of  conjecture  and 
theory. 

In  some  ways,  still  more  wonderful  than  this 
has  been  the  breeding  of  a  wheat  to  fit  a 
climate.  In  portions  of  the  South  there  are 
large  areas  which  have  been  held  to  be  unfit 
for  wheat  production.  They  were  wheat-lands 
to  all  intents  and  purposes,  but  they  had  sadly 
deteriorated.  In  the  state  of  Tennessee  the 
wheat  production  had  fallen  in  1900  to  about 
eight  millions  of  bushels  on  something  like  a 
million  of  acres  of  land  which  ought  to  have 
been  yielding  wheat.  The  trouble  was  there 
was  no  wheat  which  would  grow  upon  this  soil 
and  produce  good  results. 

At  the  experiment  station  of  the  university 
of  the  state  it  was  determined  to  breed  a 
wheat  which  should  fit  the  climate  and  soil. 
After  years  of  study  into  climatic  and  general 
weather  conditions,  after  years  of  testing,  breed- 
ing and  selection,  a  wheat  was  produced 
which,  instead  of  the  usual  average  of  eight  or 
ten  bushels  per  acre  upon  the  supposed-to-be 
infertile  soil,  has  produced  as  high  as  forty- 

59 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

eight  and  one-half  bushels  per  acre,  while 
maintaining  an  average  of  over  thirty-seven 
bushels  for  a  period  of  four  or  five  years.  The 
influence  of  such  a  factor  as  this  upon  the 
agricultural  life  of  the  commonwealth,  as  well 
as  upon  other  states  having  similar  stretches  of 
long-idle  soil,  is  very  great.  It  points  the  way 
to  a  reclamation  of  large  areas  of  abandoned 
wheat-land,  thus  adding  enormously  to  the 
state. 

Turning  to  corn,  the  greatest  cereal  in  point 
of  value  of  annual  production  in  the  United 
States,  the  results  achieved  are  fully  as  signifi- 
cant. In  corn  the  work  has  been  carried  on 
mainly  through  breeding  by  selection.  The 
corn  is  not  a  self-fertilizing  plant,  like  the 
wheat,  but  is  pollinated  by  the  wind  and 
insects  bearing  the  enriching  pollen  from  plant 
to  plant.  The  results  which  have  been  here 
reached  are  hard  by  the  border-land  of  mir- 
acles. 

The  object  sought  in  breeding  new  corns 
was  not  only  to  produce  corn  with  a  heavier 
yield,  but  to  change  the  character  of  the  corn 
itself.  Corn  for  human  food  should  be  rich  in 
one  element  Corn  for  manufacture  into  any 

60 


"g-a 

r§ 


8-4 

-      C/3 

«     O 


n 

3     a 

Sj-s 

"    a 


BREEDING   NEW  GRAINS 

of  the  various  products  which  are  now  made 
from  it  should  be  rich  in  certain  other 
elements.  So  the  corn  kernel  was  studied  in 
order  to  find  out  precisely  what  it  was  made 
of;  then  by  breeding  it  should  be  changed.  By 
taking  kernels  from  a  series  of  ears  known  to 
be  rich  in  one  particular  element,  and  breeding 
from  these  ears  year  in  and  year  out,  carefully 
selecting  for  future  seed  only  the  richest  and 
best  kernels  and  only  those  approaching  the 
ideal  established, — so,  little  by  little,  with  in- 
finite pains  and  patience,  new  corns  have  been 
built  up,  having  an  entirely  new  chemical  com- 
position, or,  better  put,  having  a  different  ratio 
between  elements. 

A  manufacturer  would  like  a  corn  made  for 
his  uses.  He  would  be  making,  we  will  say, 
corn-oil,  now  one  of  the  most  valuable  prod- 
ucts of  the  corn  plant.  It  is  in  large  demand 
among  the  olive-oil  manufacturers  of  Europe; 
and  while  it  is  not  comforting  to  think  that 
the  integrity  of  so  common  a  food  as  imported 
salad-oil  should  thus  be  brought  into  question, 
it  is  yet  satisfying  to  know  that  so  large  an 
amount  of  the  imported  article  may  have  been 
in  America  before  as  corn-oil,  pronounced  by 

61 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

those  interested  a  wholesome  vegetable  oil. 
The  oil  comes  from  the  fat  in  the  tiny  germ  of 
the  corn,  and  the  larger  the  germ,  the  greater 
the  supply  of  oil.  Quite  a  number  of  other 
avenues  are  open  to  the  corn-oil,  and  it  appears 
to  be  but  at  the  beginning  of  its  commercial 
life.  In  the  course  of  a  few  years,  after  having 
first  made  a  searching  study  into  the  life  of 
the  corn,  Prof.  C.  G.  Hopkins,  of  the  Illinois 
Agricultural  College,  bred  a  new  corn  which 
was  relatively  much  richer  in  oil  than  any 
which  had  preceded  it.  He  produced  a  corn 
having  six  and  ninety-six  hundredths  per  cent 
of  oil,  while  the  oil  in  the  corn  of  the  crop 
with  which  he  started  six  years  before  con- 
tained only  four  and  seven-tenths  per  cent  of 
oil.  To  some  manufacturers  the  fat  of  the  germ 
is  not  essential,  so,  to  accommodate  these,  he 
reversed  the  process  and  bred  a  corn  low  in  fat, 
or  oil,  reaching  two  and  ninety-nine  hundredths 
per  cent.  As  every  per  cent  of  fat  in  corn  will 
increase  the  value  of  the  corn  for  those  manu- 
facturing the  oil  by  at  least  five  cents  per 
bushel,  the  immediate  commercial  importance 
of  the  new  corn  is  apparent. 

The  element  of  the  corn  which  is  most  valu- 

62 


BREEDING   NEW  GRAINS 

able  for  strengthening  food,  the  protein,  as  it  is 
called,  which  is  the  muscle-building  material 
of  all  food,  has  also  been  increased  at  will,  and, 
where  it  could  make  way  for  some  other  ele- 
ment suitable  for  some  other  purpose,  it  has 
been  decreased.  All  this  has  been  accom- 
plished by  selective  breeding.  Corn  has  been 
produced  having  sixteen  and  eleven  hundredths 
per  cent  of  protein, —  a  remarkably  large 
amount, — while  the  protein  has  been  reduced 
to  six  and  sixty-six  hundredths  per  cent,  a  dif- 
ference in  protein  of  nearly  ten  per  cent.  Corn 
is  also  bred  for  a  large  amount  of  starch  and 
similarly  successful  results  follow.  The  corn 
in  the  hands  of  the  scientific  man  becomes  a 
miracle  plant. 

Along  with  these  changes  to  suit  the  de- 
mands of  man  has  come  a  large  increase  in 
the  yield  of  the  corn.  It  is  likely  that  this 
increase  will  be  fully  ten  bushels  per  acre, — an 
increase  which  would  add  to  the  national 
wealth  more  than  four  hundred  millions  of 
dollars  per  year. 

Perhaps  in  no  department  of  the  New  Earth 
have  the  practical  and  the  theoretical  been  so 
intimately  interwoven  as  in  the  production  of 

63 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

new  wheats  and  corns.  These  two  cereals 
upon  which  the  world  depends  for  so  much  of 
its  food,  food  for  man  and  food  for  beast,  come 
into  very  intimate  relations  with  life  itself. 
Whatever  lifts  them,  whatever  strengthens 
them,  whatever  surrounds  them  with  safe- 
guards, is  of  practical  value  to  the  race ;  what- 
ever increases  their  productivity  and  at  the 
same  time  maintains  their  food  value,  adds 
enormously  to  the  welfare  of  the  race. 

Much  concerning  their  development  is  still 
shrouded  in  mystery.  Much  yet  remains  to  be 
done.  Even  those  who  come  into  closest  touch 
with  those  grains  in  this  their  wonderful  ser- 
vice to  the  race  are  baffled  when  they  contem- 
plate the  possibilities  of  plant  life  in  the  mass. 
The  greatest  mystery  of  all  is  life  itself,  but 
we  shall  find  in  the  sweep  of  the  influences  of 
the  New  Earth  that  the  life  of  the  plant  world 
is  more  understandable  now,  more  easily 
handled,  so  to  speak,  than  it  has  ever  been 
before  since  the  world  began.  The  develop- 
ment of  the  plant  through  all  its  varied  history 
from  sprouting  time  to  harvest  is  of  surpassing 
interest. 


64 


CHAPTER  V 

PLANT  DEVELOPMENT 

Flower  in  the  crannied  wall, 

I  pluck  you  out  of  the  crannies; 

I  hold  you  here,  root  and  all,  in  my  hand, 
Little  flower — but  if  I  could  understand 
What  you  are,  root  and  all,  and  all  in  all, 
I  should  know  what  God  and  man  is. 

— Tennyson. 

TN  passing  from  a  consideration  of  the  crea- 
-*-  tion  of  a  plant  to  fit  a  soil,  it  will  be  of 
interest  to  note  the  recent  developments  of, 
and  additions  to,  the  world's  knowledge  of 
plant  life  itself,  and  to  indicate  something  of 
the  store  of  knowledge  to  which  the  tiller 
of  the  soil  of  the  New  Earth  may  now  go 
for  assistance  in  carrying  forward  his  work. 
In  comparison  with  some  other  of  his  activi- 
ties, man  has  been  painfully  halting  and  back- 
ward through  the  centuries  in  his  investigations 
in  the  realm  of  plant  life.  Indeed,  even  now, 
when  the  life  of  the  New  Earth  is  bursting 
into  blossom,  the  layman  is  constantly  sur- 
prised at  the  differences  in  opinion  expressed 

65 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

by  those  who  should  be  united  on  all  essen- 
tials, and  at  the  rapid  proving  and  disproving 
of  laws  and  theories.  While  there  is  a  whole 
literature  on  plants  and  plant  life,  one  is  not 
at  all  certain  today  what  may  happen  before 
tomorrow  morning.  Science  to  the  layman 
is,  after  all,  a  good  many  times  a  misnomer ; 
very  much  of  so-called  science  is  only  empiri- 
cism, a  process  of  testing,  a  very  interesting 
and  honest  and  absolute  quackery.  To  know 
today  should  be  absolute,  but  to  know  today 
very  often  is  to  deny  tomorrow,  and  to  try 
and  humbly  forget  the  day  after.  There  has 
ever  been  on  the  part  of  some  who  have 
sought  honestly  to  add  to  the  world's  knowl- 
edge a  painful  facility  in  jumping  at  conclu- 
sions and  then  abandoning  them.  Not  that 
a  man  should  not  admit  errors  and  hasten  to 
change, — that  goes  without  saying;  but  when 
he  adopts  science  as  his  patron  saint  he  must 
bear  well  in  mind  that  science  implies,  nay, 
demands,  to  know. 

And  yet,  while  much  that  has  been  devel- 
oped has  been  abandoned  soon  after  birth, 
vast  progress  has  been  made.  The  plant  life 
of  the  world  is  unfolding  its  secrets  as  never 


PLANT   DEVELOPMENT 

before;  or,  better  put,  man  is  rapidly  coming 
to  a  sensible  knowledge  of  these  secrets  and 
is  setting  them  out  in  orderly  array. 

One  day,  in  a  long,  sunny  room  overlooking 
a  beautiful  bay  and  a  seacoast  town  with  the 
lavender  mountains  beyond,  I  looked  down 
through  a  microscope  upon  one  of  the  most 
marvelous  sights  the  human  eye  may  ever 
hope  to  see, — the  actual  creation  or  reproduc- 
tion of  a  life.  But  a  few  moments  before,  one 
of  the  laboratory  workers  had  called  me  to 
see  a  low  form  of  minute  life  which  had  been 
brought  up  from  the  abyssal  depths  of  the 
sea.  While  I  looked,  the  cell  life  became  ani- 
mate with  motion, — a  tiny  globular  mass, 
moving  now  here,  now  there.  The  inner  pro- 
toplasmic life,  if  you  so  wish  to  call  it,  was 
vibrant  with  a  coming  change, — the  eternal 
triumph  of  creation.  The  greatest  act  in  all 
the  universe  was  being  performed,  for,  even 
as  I  looked,  a  sharp,  distinct  line  cut  its  way 
down  through  the  quivering  egg-shaped  mass ; 
it  left  two  living  things  where  there  was 
but  one  before;  a  new  life  had  come  to  the 
world.  It  was  not  only  a  marvelous  thing 
thus  to  see  life  in  the  act  of  creating  other 

67 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

life,  but  it  was  a  vantage  ground  from  which 
I,*  a  layman,  might  get  some  view  at  least 
of  the  commanding  outlook  of  the  true  mod- 
ern science.  It  was  made  possible  that  I 
should  see  this  wonderful  thing  solely  because 
of  the  men  of  science  who  have  been  giving 
their  lives  to  the  study  of  the  phenomena  of 
life.  Here  it  was  biology  that  was  uppermost; 
and  all  around  the  globe  where  the  seas  give 
up  their  great  secrets  men  are  at  work  searching 
for  new  facts  and  old  truths.  Other  men, 
a  growing  host,  are  searching  for  the  secrets 
of  the  plants  on  which  man  depends  for  his 
protection,  for  his  sustenance,  for  his  very  life. 
Both  these  groups  of  men,  and  others  in 
diverse  but  still  allied  lines,  are  hastening  the 
day  of  a  completer  knowledge  of  the  New 
Earth. 

It  was  not  so  many  years  ago,  as  the  cen- 
turies move,  since  the  plant  life  of  the  world 
was  hidden  behind  an  apparently  impenetrable 
veil.  Beyond  this  lay  a  region  of  darkness 
largely  unexplored  and  unmapped, — a  region 
toward  which  man  had  sometimes  moved  in 
some  crude  attempt  at  exploration,  but  from 
which  he  had  always  returned  with  but  little 

68 


Field  of  corn  bred  to  produce  a  high  percentage  of  fat,  or  oil 


PLANT   DEVELOPMENT 

to  show  for  his  pains.  When  the  literature 
and  art  of  Greece  and  Rome  were  at  their 
height,  something  like  five  hundred  species  of 
plants  were  known  and  described.  When  the 
revival  in  learning  set  in,  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
this  number  had  only  been  doubled ;  while  in 
1583,  when  Shakespeare  had  nearly  reached 
his  majority,  only  fifteen  hundred  and  twenty 
plants  were  known,  divided  into  some  fifteen 
classes.  In  1700,  under  the  great  impetus  of 
Linnasus,  father  of  modern  botany,  the  num- 
ber had  increased  to  eight  thousand,  while 
today  more  than  two  hundred  thousand  plants 
are  known,  named,  described  and  classified. 
There  are  fully  fifty  thousand  species  of  cul- 
tivated plants  alone,  embracing  thousands  of 
varieties.  Even  as  late  as  the  sixteenth  century, 
most  plants  were  valued  chiefly  for  their 
known  or  supposed  medicinal  qualities.  The 
shape  or  color  of  a  plant  often  determined 
its  supposed  curative  value,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  hepatica  or  liverwort,  the  resemblance 
to  the  liver  found  in  its  leaves  marking  it  in 
the  mind  of  the  doctors  of  that  day  as  pecu- 
liarly helpful  for  liver  complaints. 

Under  the  light  which  has  developed  in  the 

69 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

study  of  the  New  Earth,  the  tiller  of  the  soil 
may  come  into  closer  relationship  with  nature 
than  ever  before  since  the  creation  of  the  world. 
Not  only  may  he  know  more  of  the  secrets  of 
the  earth  and  their  bearing  upon  his  life  and 
work,  but  he  can,  at  the  same  time,  measurably 
add  to  his  own  wealth  by  taking  note  of  what 
these  discoveries  suggest. 

Today  he  may  know  that  the  plant  which 
he  rears  is  not  merely  a  blade  of  grass,  or  a 
stalk  of  wheat,  or  a  succulent  vegetable,  or  a 
protecting  tree,  but  that  it  is  an  intricate  and 
subtle  organism,  not  so  highly  constituted  nor 
so  diverse  in  its  powers  as  his  own,  but  still 
possessed  of  a  most  delicately  established  in- 
dividuality. He  may  look  at  a  wheat  plant,  for 
example,  and,  seeing  upon  it  certain  yellowish 
spots,  know  that  it  is  lacking  in  lime  and  that 
lime  must  be  fed  to  it.  If  he  follows  the  ex- 
periments of  some  of  the  scientific  men,  and 
keeps  his  pigeons  on  food  that  is  scant  in 
mineral  matter,  he  will  see  them  die  on  his 
hands ;  while  if  he  feeds  his  dog  on  meat  long 
macerated  in  water,  so  that  the  mineral  por- 
tions are  leached  out,  it  is  more  than  probable 
he  will  find  the  animal  some  morning  rapidly 

70 


PLANT   DEVELOPMENT 

developing  strange  nervous  symptoms,  and 
finally,  unless  supplied  with  food  which  con- 
tains mineral  support,  dying  with  spasms 
and  suffocation.  All  manner  of  minerals  go 
to  the  manufacture  of  plants, — lime,  magne- 
sium, potassium,  sulphur,  iron,  salts,  alumi- 
num, even  copper,  lead,  antimony,  zinc  and 
arsenic.  Some  plants,  indeed,  thrive  in  soil 
which  is  rich  in  lead  and  zinc,  while  certain 
pine  trees  which  had  their  roots  in  a  copper 
soil  were  found  to  have  taken  up  so  much 
copper  that  it  made  up  one  per  cent  of  the 
whole  dry  weight  of  the  tree.  It  will  be  found, 
too,  if  he  can  carry  his  investigations  into 
various  lines,  that  silica  lies  in  the  leaves  of 
the  plants,  just  as  it  lies  in  the  quartz  of  the 
mountains  or  in  the  deep  lustrous  depths  of 
the  opal.  He  will  find  that  when  the  summer 
is  waning  a  strange  procession  is  in  progress  in 
the  trees,  as  the  substances  which  have  been 
keeping  the  leaves  green  and  fresh  begin  their 
backward  journey  to  the  body  and  roots  of  the 
tree,  there  to  be  stored  up  for  the  next  sea- 
son's service.  Indeed,  as  one  writer  has  shown, 
this  removal  of  the  food  supplies  of  the 
leaves  begins  while  the  fruit  is  ripening,  the 

71 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

starch  and  sugar  as  well  as  the  life  principle 
itself,  the  protoplasm,  traveling  backward  to 
give  their  enrichment  to  the  fruit, —  color  and 
texture  and  food  value.  Little  by  little,  too, 
the  tree  is  forcing  its  leaves  to  die.  It  forms 
rings  of  separation  tissue,  so  to  call  them,  lay- 
ers of  cells  in  reality,  at  the  base  of  the  leaf,  at 
last  so  nearly  cutting  it  off  that  it  falls  of  its 
own  weight  or  is  blown  off  and  sent  scurrying 
along  the  dry  ground  by  the  swirling  autumn 
winds.  A  German  writer,  Kerner,  discussing 
the  subject  and  noting  the  withdrawal  of  the 
protoplasm,  starch,  sugar,  and  so  on,  from  the 
leaf-blades  says: 

"In  this  way  the  plant  suffers  only  the 
slightest  loss  in  the  material  manufactured  by 
it  in  the  preceding  vegetative  period ;  for  the 
leaves,  from  which  everything  useful  has  been 
transported  into  the  stem  structure,  now  form 
nothing  more  than  a  dead  framework,  and  their 
cell  chambers  contain  only  small  yellow  gran- 
ules, together  with  crystals  and  calcium  oxal- 
ate,  which  cannot  be  employed  further  and  are 
of  no  more  use.  The  shining  yellow  granules 
which  are  found  in  the  cells  of  fallen  leaves, 
and  to  which  is  due  the  yellow  coloring  of  the 

72 


PLANT   DEVELOPMENT 

autumn  foliage,  are  to  be  regarded  as  the  ulti- 
mate useless  residue  after  the  withdrawal  of 
the  transformed  cholorophyl  corpuscles." 

He  calls  attention  to  a  coloring  material  in 
the  leaves  named  anthocyanin  which  serves  a 
very  curious  purpose,  keeping  itself  between 
the  food  particles  that  are  traveling  back  to 
their  winter  home  in  the  trunk  and  roots  of 
the  trees,  thus  forming  a  screen  or  awning,  as 
he  calls  it,  between  the  foods  and  the  sun,  a 
protective  agent  against  injurious  light  rays. 
Certain  acids  combined  with  this  coloring 
material  produce  the  various  colors  of  the 
autumn  leaves,  the  coloring  material  appearing 
in  great  abundance  when  the  leaves  have  about 
ended  their  life. 

The  green  color  of  the  foliage,  which  is 
caused  by  the  chlorophyl  he  refers  to,  takes 
on  a  new  and  vital  interest  in  the  light  of 
modern  days.  It  comes  to  the  farmer  with  a 
strange  sense  of  unreality, — this  thought  that 
the  green  of  the  splendid  sweep  of  the  waving 
corn  is  practically  that  which  keeps  his  own 
lungs  in  action,  for  it  is  from  the  iron  com- 
pounds that  the  chlorophyl  is  in  part  produced, 
the  green  of  the  fields  and  forests,  just  as  it  is 

73 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

the  iron  that  in  a  certain  form  produces  the 
part  of  the  red  blood  which  carries  the  mo- 
lecular oxygen  to  the  remotest  part  of  the  body 
and  keeps  life  in  poise.  So,  between  the  blood 
in  his  veins  and  the  green  of  his  fields  there 
comes  a  close  and  strange  intimacy. 

And  how  insistent  are  the  plants  that  they 
be  fed  on  minerals !  An  acre  of  wheat,  it  has 
been  shown,  will  use  up  ten  pounds  of  lime  in 
coming  to  maturity;  an  acre  of  sugar-beets, 
thirty-three  pounds;  ordinary  grasses,  fifty 
pounds ;  clover,  one  hundred  pounds ;  while  an 
acre  of  tobacco  is  not  satisfied  and  best  adapted 
for  the  solace  of  the  pipes  of  man  until  it  has 
consumed  at  least  one  hundred  and  thirty 
pounds.  A  wheat  plant  was  once  kept  alive  in 
a  chemist's  laboratory  for  several  weeks  with- 
out being  fed  any  lime.  It  had  all  the  other 
foods,  but  it  slowly  sank  in  the  scale.  Little 
by  little  it  used  up  all  the  stored-up  lime  in 
its  body,  and  then,  when  the  end  seemed  near 
and  it  promised  to  die  of  lime  starvation,  the 
long- withheld  food  was  administered  to  it  and 
in  a  little  more  than  five  hours,  so  great  the 
miracle  of  plant  growth,  it  began  putting 
forth  buds. 

74 


PLANT   DEVELOPMENT 

But  it  is  not  only  in  the  vital  essence  of  his 
body,  the  blood,  that  the  farmer  may  find  like- 
ness between  himself  and  his  plants,  be  they 
flowers  or  fruits  or  waving  grains.  The  search- 
ers for  the  secrets  of  the  New  Earth  have  dis- 
closed to  him  that  the  bones  of  his  own  body 
and  the  framework  of  his  plants  are  both 
dependent  upon  the  same  substance,  the  lime 
which  gives  skeleton  to  both.  For  the  cells  of 
the  plant  in  which  go  on  the  wonderful  pro- 
cesses of  plant  growth  demand  lime,  in  addition 
to  other  substances,  for  their  construction  and 
maintenance,  just  as  man  demands  it  for  his 
own  frame, — without  it  both  collapse. 

More  and  more  as  the  man  comes  to  study 
the  plant,  he  discovers  strange  likenesses  be- 
tween himself  and  it.  He  wishes  much  for 
something, — it  may  be  a  wider  education  for  his 
children  than  he  has  himself  had,  it  may  be 
that  beautifully  lying  piece  of  meadow-land 
beyond  his  borders,  which  he  has  longed  for 
these  many  years — he  wishes,  but  he  does  more, 
he  acts,  and  acts  with  prolonged  persistence 
until  he  reaches  the  end  sought.  In  a  humbler, 
but  not  less  persistent  way,  the  roots  of  a  plant 
follow  in  the  same  path.  The  tip  of  the  root  is 

75 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

supplied  with  a  cap,  or  sheath,  for  service  in 
pushing  out  into  the  earth  region  around,  in 
search  of  water  and  nutriment,  and  yet  so  deli- 
cately supplied  with  what  we  might  call  nerves 
that  it  instantly  detects  an  obstacle  it  cannot 
penetrate  and  goes  around  it.  It  has  power  as 
well  as  persistence,  too,  and  a  single  tiny  root 
end  forcing  its  way  through  the  earth  exerts  a 
power  equal  to  three  hundred  pounds  pressure 
per  square  inch.  Like  the  man,  it  does  not 
give  up  until  it  reaches  its  desired  end. 

The  root-system  of  the  plant  has  been  called 
very  fittingly  its  anchorage,  since  it  not  only  is 
constantly  being  extended  as  the  plant  seeks 
more  food,  but  serves  as  an  anchor  to  hold 
the  plant  in  place  upon  the  earth.  It  also 
serves  as  a  storage  place  for  food  for  the  plant, 
laid  up  for  future  use.  The  ramifications  of 
the  roots  of  plants  naturally  vary,  but  a  single 
squash  seed  has  developed  a  plant  having  roots 
several  thousand  feet  in  length.  Instinctively 
the  roots  turn  away  from  the  light.  Their 
work,  like  that  of  the  bacteria  in  the  nodules 
of  the  clover,  can  best  be  carried  on  in  utter 
darkness.  The  value  of  a  root  as  a  storage 
reservoir  cannot  well  be  better  shown  than  in 

76 


PLANT   DEVELOPMENT 

the  case  of  the  sugar-beet,  which  contains  from 
eight  to  twenty  per  cent  of  sugar,  besides 
other  solids  in  smaller  quantities. 

And  here,  again,  as  he  looks  at  the  structure 
of  the  plant,  the  New  Earth  man  finds  constant 
similarity  to  himself.  As  his  body  stores  up 
food  against  which  he  may  draw  in  days  of 
sickness,  so  the  plant  stores  up  food  for  its 
own  uses.  While  the  man  is  able  to  take  the 
initial  steps  toward  supplying  himself  with 
food,  an  act  of  the  will,  if  you  please,  yet  the 
plant  is  not  so  far  behind  the  man  after  all,  for 
it  also  takes  constant  care  that  its  food  supply 
does  not  run  low  in  the  larder.  Man  is  as 
dependent,  too,  upon  favoring  conditions  of 
soil,  climate,  sunshine,  air  and  rain,  as  the 
plant  is;  without  them  the  plant  dies,  and 
when  the  plants  of  the  world  die,  man  dies. 

Above  the  roots  of  the  plant  the  great  work 
of  food  manufacture  and  assimilation  goes 
on,  day  following  day  adding  to  the  plant's 
strength  and  day  following  day  adding  to  its 
stature  until,  like  man,  it  reaches  a  stage  of 
maturity  and  passes  on  to  old  age  and  final 
dissolution.  But  just  as  man  in  these  later 
days  is  studying  how  he  may  prolong  life,  and 

77 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

doing  it,  too,  by  means  of  better  foods,  im- 
proved methods  of  living,  better  sanitation, 
and  so  on,  so  nature  is  on  the  lookout  for  lon- 
gevity as  one  of  her  attributes.  The  great 
trees  of  California,  oldest  of  living  things  upon 
the  earth,  more  than  two  thousand  years  old 
when  came  the  dawn  of  Christianity, — these 
gigantic  plants  of  immortality,  are  attesting 
through  the  centuries  that  life  may  be  pro- 
longed far  beyond  the  so-called  natural  span. 

One  of  the  foods  upon  which  the  plant 
depends  for  its  strength  is,  per  contra,  a  poison 
to  man.  It  is  a  gas,  carbon  dioxide  as  it  is 
called,  or,  in  commoner  phrase,  carbonic  acid 
gas.  It  exists  in  the  atmosphere  in  the  relation 
of  one  part  to  every  twenty-five  thousand. 
While  it  is  harmless  as  an  aerating  agent,  giv- 
ing a  certain  pleasant  pungency  to  various 
drinks,  it  is  poisonous  when  taken  into  the 
lungs.  It  is  that  which  makes  rooms  illy  ven- 
tilated so  dangerous,  for  the  gas  is  constantly 
given  off  from  the  lungs  and,  in  a  closed  room, 
is  breathed  over  and  over  again,  a  slow  but 
persistent  poisoning. 

The  plant  has  a  better,  or  at  least  a  different 
way  of  doing  things.  By  day  it  takes  up 

78 


PLANT   DEVELOPMENT 

the  carbonic  acid  gas  from  the  atmosphere, 
separates  the  carbon  and  oxygen  which  com- 
pose it,  utilizes  the  carbon  for  its  own  food, 
and  sets  free  the  greater  part  of  the  oxygen. 
A  beneficent  friend  to  the  plant,  the  gas  is  an 
enemy  to  man.  Owing  to  its  weight  it  easily 
settles  down  in  low  places,  and,  when  formed 
in  large  quantities,  makes  the  deadly  black- 
damp  or  choke-damp  of  mines  and  caves.  It  is 
estimated  that  a  single  person  throws  off  two 
pounds  of  this  gas  a  day. 

It  has  been  feared  by  some  that,  under 
certain  conditions,  a  great  danger  might  come 
to  the  race  through  the  supply  of  this  gas, 
which  even  under  normal  conditions  is  given 
off  in  the  air  about  us  in  enormous  quantities. 
Scientific  investigation  has  shown  that  though 
the  whole  human  race,  together  with  the 
lower  plants  and  animals,  give  out  six  thousand 
million  pounds  of  carbon  dioxide  every  twenty- 
four  hours,  the  plants  of  the  vegetable  king- 
dom consume  each  day  more  than  twice  as 
much  as  this,  while  giving  out  to  the  air  twice 
as  much  oxygen  as  they  consume. 

In  a  peculiarly  fitting  manner  the  plant  may 
be  termed  a  pump,  as  well  as  a  highly  organ- 

79 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

ized  individual,  for  by  means  of  its  root  system 
it  draws  up  from  the  earth  large  quantities  of 
water,  uses  it  for  its  own  purposes,  and  sends 
it  off  again  through  the  air  by  transpiration. 
A  single  poplar  tree  of  normal  size  and  in 
good  health  sends  off  through  the  air  every 
day  a  barrel  of  water.  It  has  been  found  that 
gas  in  trees  plays  a  most  important  part  in 
this  act  of  pumping.  Maple-sugar  trees,  for 
example,  have  been  carefully  tested  by  the 
specialists  in  the  Vermont  Experiment  Station 
by  means  of  pressure  gages.  It  was  shown  that 
the  gas  in  the  tree  is  at  times  in  a  state  of 
suction  through  being  highly  rarefied.  This 
draws  up  the  sap  from  the  roots — it  is  not 
forced  up  from  the  roots,  as  had  long  been 
believed.  There  is  root  pressure,  however,  and 
the  man  of  science  comes  forward  with  the  in- 
formation that  the  dew  which  makes  the  grass 
brilliant  as  with  many  diamonds  when  the  sun 
is  coming  up  is  not  dew  at  all  as  we  commonly 
call  it,  a  product  of  condensation,  but  water 
which  has  been  drawn  up  from  the  roots  in 
the  night  and,  there  being  no  sun  or  warmth 
to  dry  or  evaporate  it,  it  has  formed  in  drops 
upon  the  grass-blades. 

80 


PLANT   DEVELOPMENT 

But  in  and  through  all  the  life  of  the  plant, 
whether  it  be  the  tiniest  flower  that  blossoms 
but  for  a  day  or  the  vast  pine  that  outlives 
civilizations,  there  runs  the  influence  of  another 
power,  the  highest  attribute  of  its  life,  its  pro- 
toplasm, its  very  life  itself.  Different  sub- 
stances enter  into  this  protoplasm,  and  it  has 
an  exceedingly  complex  chemical  composition, 
though,  roughly  speaking,  it  is  about  eighty  to 
eighty-five  per  cent  water  and  fifteen  to 
twenty  per  cent  solids,  with  small  quantities 
of  fat  and  mineral  salts.  It  is  maintained  in  a 
cell, — from  it  comes  life  itself;  when  it  dies  the 
plant  dies.  It  has  the  power  of  combining  the 
food  elements  and  producing  all  of  the  organic 
compounds  of  the  plant.  The  word  is  Greek, 
in  its  origin  meaning  the  first  creation,  or  the 
first  creature  or  thing  made.  In  plant  or 
animal  it  is  the  basis,  the  source  of  and  con- 
tinuity of  all  life. 

It  may  be  analyzed  and  described ;  but  there 
man's  sight  ends,  there  his  hand  is  stayed. 
What  gives  it  its  life  lies  beyond  his  vision  in 
the  realm  of  the  infinite.  In  his  own  life  he 
can  understand  his  physical  powers  and  forces 
in  large  measure,  he  can  care  for  his  body  as 

81 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

he  cares  for  his  grains  and  his  fruits,  he  can 
nurture  and  control  and  educate  his  higher 
faculties,  just  as  he  can,  by  exhaustive  breeding 
and  selection  and  combination,  lead  the  plant 
life  about  him  to  higher  planes,  augment  it, 
ennoble  it,  improve  it,  enormously  multiply  it. 
But  beyond  all  this,  beyond  his  life,  lies  his 
life.  He  stands  before  his  life  as  he  does 
before  the  protoplasm  cell  which  he  may  see 
under  the  microscope,  or  as  he  stands  before 
the  life  which  has  been  brought  up  from  the 
abyssal  depths  of  the  sea,  and  watches  it  as  it 
reproduces  itself;  but  between  this  protoplasm 
and  between  this  act  of  re-creation  and  life 
itself  lies  a  gulf  as  wide  as  eternity, — a  gulf 
upon  which  no  man  may  even  so  much  as 
raise  anchor  while  earth  life  lasts,  but  which, 
through  all  the  centuries  since  man  and  the 
plants  came  upon  earth,  he  has  been  crossing 
under  the  white  sails  of  an  immortal  hope. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  ENEMIES  OF  PLANT  LIFE 

r  |^HE  fact  that  Nature  generally  preserves 
-*-  a  strict  balance  in  the  administration  of 
the  affairs  of  her  many  types  of  life  has  had 
an  important  bearing  on  one  of  the  vital  activi- 
ties of  the  New  Earth.  Nature  believes  in 
legitimate  competition.  She  believes,  too,  in 
the  survival  of  the  fittest;  but  under  normal 
conditions  she  preserves  a  splendid  neutrality, 
urging  only  that  each  factor,  plant,  or  planet, 
or  man  shall  do  their  full  duty.  It  is  not 
Nature's  way  to  permit  maleficent  monopoly, 
though  she  encourages  legitimate  organization 
and  looks  favorably  upon  competition.  It  is 
her  way  to  see  that  no  one  factor  gets  the 
upper  hand.  We  need  not  follow  this  line 
into  the  realm  of  the  theorists  who  see  in  wars 
and  the  plague  a  necessary,  and  sometimes 
insufficient,  bar  to  over-population;  for  here 
there  must,  of  necessity,  be  indefiniteness  and 
speculation.  If  there  is  any  one  thing  that 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

distinguishes  the  New  Earth  from  the  Old 
more  than  another  it  is  preciseness ;  the  New 
is  not  speculative,  but  demonstrable  and  in- 
tensely practical.  While  it  is  at  times  spec- 
tacular, or  even  dramatic,  it  never  departs 
from  the  bounds  of  common  sense. 

The  balance  of  nature  is  in  no  way  more 
interestingly  shown  than  in  the  disposition 
of  insect  pests.  Nature  not  always  goes  to 
the  full  limit  of  service  unaided;  she  fre- 
quently must  have  man's  help.  Sometimes 
she  is  sore  beset  by  enemies;  so  sharp  and 
bitter  their  attack,  she  seems  unable  to  with- 
stand. This,  now  and  then,  is  shown  in  the 
sudden  uprising  of  insect  pests,  sweeping  all 
before  them,  as  in  the  case  of  the  locusts,  and, 
for  the  time  being,  rendering  even  man  help- 
less before  the  fury  of  their  attack.  No  one  who 
has  ever  lived  in  the  path  of  the  grasshopper, 
when  he  comes  with  his  myriads  of  cohorts 
to  defoliate  the  world,  need  be  told  how  ter- 
rible is  his  progress :  he  is  to  the  green  earth 
what  the  Plague  is  to  man.  To  hear  the  roar 
of  uncountable  wings,  to  note  the  looks  of 
apprehension  in  the  faces  of  the  elders,  to  see 
the  whole  earth  stripped  of  its  green, — tree  and 

84 


THE   ENEMIES   OF   PLANT   LIFE 

shrub  and  fields  of  waving  grain, — to  realize 
that  the  grasshopper  means  death  to  the  crops 
and  death  oftentimes  to  hope, — it  is  an  expe- 
rience not  easily  to  be  forgotten. 

In  general,  the  insect  pests  which  now  and 
then  upset  the  wholesome  balance  of  nature 
are  of  two  kinds, — those  which  make  their 
home  in  the  plant  itself,  the  plant  acting  as  the 
unwilling  host  of  the  pest,  and  the  exterior 
ones,  so  to  call  them,  the  insects  which  prey 
upon  the  plant  from  without.  Most  of  these 
pests  are  true  animal  life — flies,  mites,  cater- 
pillars, and  so  on.  There  are,  too,  pests  of 
another  type  which  now  and  then  arise  which 
are  vegetable  in  character,  low  forms  of  plant 
life — the  rusts,  mildew,  bunt,  smut,  molds, 
and  the  like,  diseases,  rather  than  pests,  which 
thrive  on  decaying  vegetation  and  which  some- 
times do  irreparable  damage  to  growing  crops. 
They  are  fungous  in  their  growth,  rapidly 
multiplying  and  carrying  decay  and  disintegra- 
tion wherever  they  go.  But,  for  present  con- 
sideration, we  may  turn  to  the  insect  pests 
as  of  peculiar  interest,  for  in  their  control  we 
have  one  of  the  most  significant  and  impor- 
tant advance  steps  yet  taken  by  those  who  are 

85 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

giving  their  lives  to  the  development  of  the 
New  Earth. 

If  the  nation  were  compelled  to  pay  out,  say, 
as  a  war  indemnity,  or  for  some  loan  incurred 
through  national  extravagance  or  unthrift,  a 
sum  equal  to  the  loss  now  sustained  by  insect 
pests,  it  would  arouse  universal  revolt;  and 
should  it  be  known  that  the  enormous  sum 
was  a  matter  of  annual  payment,  to  be  indefi- 
nitely extended,  apprehension  of  a  deep  and 
vital  type  must  take  hold  on  the  public.  For 
the  losses  in  the  United  States  in  the  past 
ten  years  through  insect  pests,  without  con 
sidering  indirect  losses,  in  themselves  vast, 
have  been  seven  billions  of  dollars, — an  amount 
more  than  three  times  the  national  debt,  a 
colossal  sum  even  in  a  wealthy  nation  accus- 
tomed to  large  figures.  And  the  loss  is  pro- 
gressing at  the  rate  of  seven  hundred  millions 
of  dollars  a  year, — enough  to  pay  all  the  ex- 
penses of  the  nation,  including  the  pension  roll 
and  the  maintenance  of  the  army  and  navy. 

To  combat  these  pests  which  annually  do 
such  vast  harm,  the  ingenuity  of  man  has  been 
taxed  to  the  utmost.  Science  has  come  for- 
ward with  her  formulas  and  methods.  Inven- 

86 


THE   ENEMIES   OF   PLANT   LIFE 

tion  has  done  its  uttermost.  Millions  of  dol- 
lars have  been,  and  are  being,  expended. 
Costly  apparatus  and  large  numbers  of  work- 
men have  made  up  this  expense,  to  say  noth- 
ing of  millions  of  dollars  lost  through  ruined 
crops  and  orchards.  In  the  state  of  Massachu- 
setts alone  it  is  estimated  that  eight  millions 
of  dollars  have  been  spent  in  unsuccessfully 
combating  a  caterpillar.  The  whole  gamut 
of  chemistry  and  invention  has  been  run,  and 
while  good  has  resulted  from  some  of  the 
many  washes,  sprays,  fumigators,  insecticides, 
and  so  on,  they  must  all  be  counted  as  make- 
shifts at  the  best — they  alleviate  but  do  not 
prevent. 

I  quite  well  remember  conversations  with 
one  of  the  best  known  of  the  older  practical 
entomologists  of  the  country,  Dr.  Otto  Lug- 
ger, since  deceased,  who  had  for  many  years 
been  making  a  deep  study  of  the  subject  of 
insect  control.  In  fact,  many  years  before  any 
public  announcement  of  the  prevention  of 
fevers  in  tropic  countries  by  the  exclusion  of 
mosquitos,  he  had  demonstrated  the  truth  un- 
derlying while  engaged  in  natural  history 
researches  in  Central  America.  He  had  been 

87 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

studying  the  chinch-bug  at  length,  an  insect 
which  for  years  has  done  great  damage  to 
grains  in  the  Northwest.  At  last  he  hit  upon 
a  plan  which,  while  not  altogether  successful 
in  his  lifetime,  because,  for  one  reason,  of  the 
lack  of  successful  cooperation  on  the  part  of 
farmers,  contained  a  vital  principle  of  large 
significance.  He  determined  to  let  the  bugs 
kill  the  bugs,  a  simple  economic  advance 
which  is  now  in  a  different  form  going  into 
practical  effect.  He  knew  that  there  was  a 
disease  which  in  certain  seasons  attacked  the 
chinch-bugs  and  carried  them  off  with  com- 
mendable alacrity.  He  secured  this  disease  in 
its  original  form,  a  low  fungous  or  bacterial 
growth,  multiplied  it  with  great  rapidity  by 
laboratory  cultivation,  sprinkled  it  in  a  fine 
white  powder  upon  the  backs  of  healthy 
chinch-bugs  and  set  them  loose  among  their 
fellows,  with  the  result  that  they  at  once 
spread  the  disease  among  the  other  healthy 
bugs.  The  disease  was  then  cultivated  and 
sent  out  in  tubes  to  the  farmers  with  instruc- 
tions for  its  distribution.  The  entomologist 
died  before  his  work  was  completed.  I  do  not 
know  that  it  could  have  been  successfully 

88 


THE   ENEMIES   OF   PLANT   LIFE 

completed,  but  there  was  in  it  the  germ  of 
a  tremendous  force. 

In  California  a  modification  of  this  principle 
is  being  applied  with  marked  success, — the 
destruction  of  injurious  insects  by  other  insects, 
aiding  Nature,  when  her  balance  has  been  dis- 
turbed, to  restore  it  to  its  normal  poise,  doing 
that  which  neither  man  nor  nature  could  do 
alone.  At  intervals,  the  great  fruit  industry 
of  California  has  been  threatened  through  the 
ravages  of  some  insect.  Now  and  then  total 
extinction  of  a  fruit  has  seemed  imminent. 
Losses  have  been  very  heavy.  Artificial  pro- 
tection through  sprays,  washes,  fumigations, 
and  the  like,  have  entailed  large  expense. 
Having  direct  ocean  communication  with  for- 
eign countries  where  fruits  grow  in  abundance, 
exceptional  opportunities  are  provided  for  the 
introduction  of  pests  by  importation.  For 
example,  it  happened  one  day  that  a  fruit- 
grower imported  a  certain  kind  of  lemon  tree 
which  he  thought  would  be  an  improvement 
on  the  local  stock,  but  it  proved  to  be  the 
home  of  a  tiny  insect,  a  scale,  very  minute  but 
capable  of  marvelously  rapid  reproduction. 
Its  mission  was  to  destroy  foliage,  blossoms 

89 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

and  fruit.  The  stock  was  sold  to  others  with- 
out knowledge  that  the  scale  was  on  it,  and 
in  a  comparatively  short  time,  so  incredibly 
rapid  was  the  spread  of  the  pest,  the  whole 
citrus  fruit  industry  of  Southern  California 
was  threatened  with  extinction.  While  orange 
shipments  were  not  then  as  large  as  under 
later  development,  they  were  yet  steadily  in- 
creasing so  that  for  the  year  before  the  scale 
was  introduced  about  eight  thousand  car-loads 
were  shipped.  When  the  scale  got  fairly  at 
work,  the  shipments  dropped  to  six  hundred 
cars  in  a  year.  Nothing  availed.  Fumigations 
and  washes  were  useless.  Sprays  were  ineffec- 
tual. Digging  up  infected  orchards  and  burn- 
ing the  trees,  quite  as  buildings  in  the  path 
of  a  tremendous  conflagration  are  dynamited 
to  stay  the  flames,  had  no  effect,  for  the  pest 
had  now  spread  to  all  vegetation  and  was 
rapidly  turning  the  country  back  into  the 
desert  from  which  it  had  originally  been 
wrested. 

At  this  critical  juncture  help  came  from  an 
unexpected  source.  A  tiny  insect,  a  beautiful 
little  thing,  brilliant  red  in  color,  not  more 
than  the  sixteenth  of  an  inch  in  diameter,  one 

90 


THE   ENEMIES   OF   PLANT   LIFE 

of  the  family  of  ladybirds,  became  the  salva- 
tion of  the  fruit  industry  of  a  great  state.  The 
horticultural  commission  of  the  state  learned 
that  such  an  insect  lived  in  Australia  and  that, 
where  it  abounded,  this  scale  was  some  way 
held  in  check.  Through  the  cooperation  of 
Thomas  F.  Bayard,  then  secretary  of  state,  a 
few  of  the  eggs  of  the  insects  were  secured, 
brought  to  the  United  States,  and  hatched 
out.  As  swiftly  as  possible  the  insects  were 
liberated  in  the  infected  regions.  They  proved 
to  be  fully  as  rapid  in  their  reproductive 
powers  as  the  scale.  Instantly  upon  being 
released  near  an  infected  tree  the  tiny  ladybird 
searched  out  the  scale  and  began  its  work  of 
destruction.  It  throve  on  the  service,  too, 
multiplying  with  almost  inconceivable  rapidity 
when  once  the  rate  of  progression  was  estab- 
lished. It  would  feed  on  nothing  else  but  the 
scale.  It  was  Nature's  method  of  dealing  with 
any  factor  which  threatened  permanently  to 
disturb  her  balance.  As  it  rose  to  its  work 
the  orchards  began  putting  on  new  life  and 
the  fruit  industry  was  saved ;  millions  of  dol- 
lars' worth  of  property,  present  and  prospec- 
tive, owed  its  existence  to  the  tiny  foe  of  the 

91 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

pest.  The  Vedalia  cardinalis,  as  it  was  called, 
had  won  the  day,  and  the  ravages  of  the 
cottony  cushion  scale  were  at  an  end. 

So  began  one  of  the  most  remarkable  devel- 
opments in  the  many-sided  life  of  the  New 
Earth.  The  preservation  of  the  balance  of 
nature — it  was  this  which  was  at  the  foun- 
dation of  it  all.  In  Australia  the  scale  and  the 
ladybird  were  in  check,  in  balance.  Neither 
one  superabounded.  The  moment  the  balance 
was  disturbed,  the  scale  getting  by  ever  so 
little  the  upper  hand,  that  moment  the  lady- 
bird began  its  work,  keeping  at  it  until  foe  and 
pest  were  in  balance.  It  has  been  shown  that 
if  the  eggs  of  a  single  codfish  should  all 
mature  and  the  eggs  of  the  thousands  of  new 
fish  should  likewise  mature  and  the  progression 
proceed,  it  would  be  a  matter  of  a  relatively 
short  time  before  the  whole  universe  from 
planet  to  planet  and  out  beyond  the  farthest 
star  would  be  a  universe  of  codfish,  so  rapid 
and  vast  the  progression.  But  nature  allows 
but  a  very  few  of  the  eggs  to  come  to 
maturity — the  balance  is  preserved.  It  is  upon 
this  principle  of  a  preservation  of  this  balance 
that  this  California  Commission  has  worked. 

92 


THE   ENEMIES   OF   PLANT   LIFE 

A  skilled  man  is  traveling  over  the  world, 
jointly  in  service  with  this  commission  and 
West  Australia  authorities,  seeking  for  foes  of 
insect  pests.  He  found  one  day  a  place  in  the 
interior  of  Spain  where  the  apples  were  not 
disturbed  to  any  appreciable  extent  by  the 
worm  which  has  done  such  enormous  damage 
to  the  apple  crop  in  Europe  and  the  United 
States,  the  losses  in  this  country  averaging 
twenty  millions  of  dollars  per  year.  This 
worm  is  the  product  of  the  codling-moth.  The 
worm  was  found  in  the  Spanish  orchards  in 
small  numbers,  and  this  led  the  investigator  to 
inquire  why  this  was, — why  the  worm  did  not 
abound  as  elsewhere  when  other  conditions 
were  the  same.  He  found  in  the  orchards  a 
small  fly,  considerably  larger  than  a  house-fly 
and  very  much  larger  than  the  tiny  Australia 
ladybird,  very  slender  and  wasp-like  in  shape, 
with  two  pairs  of  long,  blue-black  wings.  It 
had  also  a  long  sheath  in  which  it  carried  a 
slender  powerful  stiletto.  Investigation  showed 
that  it  was  this  fly  which  kept  the  true  balance 
of  nature  in  the  Spanish  orchards.  It  was  its 
particular  mission  to  kill  the  codling-moth 
worm,  the  natural  foe  of  this  dreaded  pest. 

93 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

A  small  supply  of  the  pupas  of  the  flies  was 
secured  and  dispatched  to  San  Francisco.  In 
the  insectary  of  the  California  Horticultural 
Commission  located  in  that  city,  they  were 
hatched  out  into  a  small  colony  of  the  flies. 
They  were  supplied  with  pieces  of  branches  of 
apple  trees  bearing  the  worms.  Instantly  on 
discovering  the  worms  they  began  their  work 
of  destruction.  The  stiletto  is  so  powerful  that 
it  can  be  driven  down  into  the  bark  when  the 
worm  is  under  the  surface,  the  insect  unerr- 
ingly locating  the  worm.  It  finds  the  worm, 
kills  it,  and  then  lays  a  few  of  its  many  eggs 
upon  the  worm's  body.  Curiously  enough,  the 
natural  warmth  in  the  body  of  the  worm  is 
sufficient  to  hatch  out  the  eggs,  the  hatching 
requiring  but  two  hours'  time.  The  worm  thus 
serves  as  the  hotel,  so  to  speak,  for  the  young 
flies.  They  live  on  and  in  it  until  they  are 
ready  to  take  up  their  life-work.  When  they 
have  reached  forty-two  or  forty-three  days  of 
age,  they  are  ready  to  begin  their  actual  work 
of  destruction.  As  each  female  lays  several 
hundred  eggs,  the  rate  of  progression,  where 
there  is  ample  material  on  which  to  feed,  is 
very  great. 

94 


THE   ENEMIES   OF   PLANT   LIFE 

As  soon  as  the  flies  were  abundant  enough, 
colonies  of  them  were  sent  out  to  different 
parts  of  California  and  at  once  began  searching 
out  the  worms  and  putting  them  to  death. 
Actual  work  on  a  scale  large  enough  to  show 
appreciable  results  was  begun  in  the  season  of 
1905.  Favorable  reports  began  coming  in  to 
the  commission  shortly  after  the  liberation  of 
the  initial  colonies.  Indications  at  once  pointed 
to  a  condition  of  affairs  approaching  similar  to 
that  in  Spain,  the  flies  so  rapidly  destroying  the 
worms  that  it  must  be  a  matter  of  a  compara- 
tively short  time  before  the  whole  state  will  be 
patrolled  by  these  tiny  protectors  guarding  the 
orchards.  The  extension  of  the  same  plan  to 
other  infested  regions  will  apparently  eradicate 
this  long-dreaded  foe  of  the  American  apple 
orchards. 

Another  pest,  a  black  scale,  made  its  appear- 
ance. It  promised  to  be  as  disastrous  as  the 
cottony  cushion  scale.  Investigation  disclosed 
the  natural  foe  of  this  pest,  another  ladybird, 
living  in  South  Africa,  black  in  color  and 
somewhat  larger  than  the  tiny  red  ladybird. 
From  Cape  Town  branches  of  oleander  bear- 
ing the  eggs  of  the  foe  were  sent  to  San  Fran- 

95 


THE    NEW  EARTH 

cisco.  But  few  of  the  eggs  were  hatched  out, 
seventeen  all  told,  and  of  these  only  four  were 
females.  One  of  these  latter  was  killed  by  a 
spider  which  had  been  hidden  in  a  curled-up 
leaf  in  the  case,  leaving  but  three  tiny  insects 
to  do  battle  against  a  host  unnumbered.  But 
the  three  were  equal  to  the  emergency.  Each 
one  hatched  out  many  eggs,  the  greater  por- 
tion of  these  eggs  in  turn  hatched  out  other 
flies,  and  soon  there  were  quite  a  number  of 
colonies  ready  to  be  liberated.  They  began 
their  work  in  the  season  of  1905,  wherever  the 
scale  was  found,  and  at  once  the  scale  began 
to  disappear. 

The  apricots  of  the  fruit  regions  of  Califor- 
nia have  been  subject  to  a  brown  scale  which 
not  only  destroys  the  young  fruit  and  foliage, 
but  which  forms  such  thick  incrustations  upon 
the  trunk  and  branches  as  to  imperil  the  life 
of  the  tree  itself.  Other  trees,  particularly 
plums  and  prunes,  are  subject  to  its  attack- 
To  meet  this  pest  whenever  it  appears  in  dan- 
gerous quantities,  the  commission  keeps  on 
hand  a  supply  of  brown  flies,  very  small  in 
size,  smaller  indeed  than  the  tiny  ladybird, 
almost  microscopic — the  foe  of  the  scale.  On 

96 


THE   ENEMIES   OF   PLANT   LIFE 

report  from  any  region  of  the  state  that  this 
pest  is  appearing,  a  colony  is  sent  out  by  the 
first  mail,  and  soon  the  balance  is  restored. 
Supplies  of  the  infested  twigs  and  branches 
are  gathered  along  in  May.  This  foe  is  differ- 
ent from  the  ladybird  in  its  method  of  attack, 
eating  its  way  into  the  parasite  or  pest  instead 
of  killing  it  from  the  outside.  The  twigs  are 
placed  in  wooden  boxes,  in  the  sides  of  which 
are  glass  vials.  The  foe  at  last  emerges  from 
the  insect  in  the  box  and  goes  out  into  the 
vial.  As  soon  as  twenty-five,  or  more,  have 
crawled  out  into  the  vials,  the  mouths  of  the 
vials  are  closed  up  with  cotton,  to  prevent  the 
escape  of  the  flies  and  yet  give  them  air,  the 
vials  are  placed  in  stout  pasteboard  tubes,  and 
thus  are  mailed  to  the  orchard  growers  where 
the  pest  appears.  Colony  after  colony  is  thus 
secured.  Tens  of  thousands  of  them  are  sent 
out,  and  they  do  their  work  swiftly  and  well. 
These  foe  insects  do  not  in  themselves  do 
harm.  Their  chief  object  is  to  find  their  nat- 
ural enemy,  which  is  the  enemy  of  the  fruits. 
The  pest  may  never  be  wholly  destroyed  in 
a  given  region,  but,  by  the  introduction  of  its 
foe  and  the  consequent  preservation  of  the 

97 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

balance  of  nature,  the  danger  is  eliminated 
and  the  foe  and  the  pest  go  on  living  together 
in  safety. 

These  are  illustrations  of  the  work  which 
this  commission  is  doing.  Other  pests  are 
being  subjugated  in  the  same  way.  When  a 
foe  to  a  given  pest  is  found  while  the  pest 
is  not  sufficiently  active  to  warrant  operations, 
the  eggs  may  be  kept  indefinitely  in  cold  stor- 
age ready  for  hatching  when  needed.  In  the 
insectary  of  the  commission  I  saw  a  little 
orange  tree  one  day  about  to  set  out  upon 
a  journey  which  illustrates  the  scope  of  the 
work  done  and  suggests  its  possibilities.  The 
little  tree  was  possessed  of  a  scale  insect  which 
promised  serious  damage.  It  had  but  begun 
to  show  itself  in  California,  but  it  was  known 
to  be  dangerous.  It  was  learned  that  in  an 
interior  Chinese  province  the  foe  to  this  pest 
and  the  pest  thrive  together  with  no  harm  to 
the  fruits, — a  complete  balance.  The  tree  was 
about  to  be  sent  to  Hong  Kong,  where  it 
would  meet  the  agent  of  the  commission  who 
would  take  it  on  its  long  journey  into  China, 
place  it  where  it  would  accumulate  on  its 
leaves  a  supply  of  the  eggs  of  the  foe  and 

98 


THE   ENEMIES    OF   PLANT   LIFE 

would  then  ship  it  back  again,  the  eggs  to  be 
hatched  out  in  San  Francisco  and  the  foe 
liberated  wherever  the  pest  appeared. 

Strangely  enough,  so  far  as  now  known, 
each  foe  must  have  its  particular  parasite  or 
pest  to  feed  upon.  It  is  said,  for  example,  that 
the  tiny  ladybird  that  saved  the  orange  and 
lemon  orchards  by  destroying  the  cottony 
cushion  scale  will  starve  to  death  on  any  other 
food  than  the  scale; — it  would  seem  that  it 
has  been  specially  prepared  for  this  particular 
act  of  destruction. 

In  order  to  prevent  further  introduction  of 
pests,  the  state  of  California  has  established  a 
rigid  quarantine  against  foreign  ports  in  order 
that  no  new  pests  may  be  introduced.  Among 
the  pests  which  are  common,  and  which  the 
commission  is  preparing  for  by  keeping  up 
a  constant  search  for  their  natural  foes,  are 
the  following:  Plant-lice,  prune-aphis,  woolly 
aphis,  black  peach-aphis,  cabbage-louse,  grape- 
louse,  pear-scale,  red  scale,  peach-root  borer, 
peach  -  moth,  canker  -  worm,  tent  -  caterpillar, 
cherry-slug,  Harlequin  cabbage-bug,  box  elder 
plant-bug,  Fuller's  rose-beetle,  various  types 
of  thrips,  red  spiders  and  mites  of  various 

99 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

kinds.  It  is  believed  that  the  foes  of  all  these, 
as  well  as  of  all  other  dangerous  pests,  may 
be  found. 

The  California  commission  does  not  advise 
the  abandoning  of  the  use  of  artificial  protec- 
tion wherever  there  is  no  foe  at  hand  or  wher- 
ever the  foe  does  not  as  yet  do  its  full  service, 
but  it  points  out  that  all  these  sprays,  washes, 
fumigators  and  so  on,  are  but  makeshifts,  that 
they  are  expensive,  and  that  they  cannot  be 
relied  upon  to  give  permanent  relief.  Nature 
has  somewhere  a  good  bug  to  kill  the  bad 
bug;  it  is  man's  part  to  find  the  first  and  lib- 
erate him  where  he  can  destroy  the  second. 

The  attention  of  other  states  is  being  called 
to  this  remarkable  work,  with  the  probability 
of  its  indefinite  expansion.  There  appears  to 
be  no  reason  why  it  may  not  be  made  to 
include  practically  all  the  insect  pests.  The 
national  government  has  recently  been  at 
work  along  the  same  line,  seeking  to  locate 
foes  of  the  various  pests  affecting  cereals, 
cotton  and  fruits. 

The  subjoined  statement  somewhat  in  de- 
tail of  the  damage  of  insect  pests  in  the 
United  States  in  a  single  year,  prepared  in  the 

100 


THE   ENEMIES   OF   PLANT   LIFE 

Department  of  Agriculture  in  Washington, 
illustrates  the  need  of  some  radical  action. 
The  California  fruit-growers,  driven  to  the  last 
ditch  and  unable  longer  to  cope  with  the  pests 
by  artificial  means,  appear  to  be  able  now  to 
supply  the  remedy  and  prevent  to  a  large 
extent  this  enormous  annual  national  waste, 
which  is  apportioned  by  the  government  as 
follows:  Cereals,  $200,000,000;  hay,  $53,000,- 
000  ;  cotton,  $60,000,000  ;  tobacco,  $5,300,000 ; 
truck  crops,  $53,000,000;  sugars,  $5,000,000; 
fruits,  $27,000,000;  farm  forests,  $11,000,000; 
miscellaneous  crops,  $5,800,000;  animal  prod- 
ucts, $175,000,000 ;  natural  forests  and  forest 
products,  $100,000,000  ;  a  total  direct  damage 
by  all  insect  pests  per  year  in  the  United 
States  of  $795,100,000. 

The  annual  value  of  the  products  in  these 
lines  is  $5,551,000,000,  the  loss  from  insects 
running  from  ten  to  fifty  per  cent.  This  does 
not  take  into  account  the  indirect  loss  in  the 
way  of  employees'  wages,  cost  of  attempted 
protection,  injury  to  enterprises,  and  the  like, 
in  itself  a  large  and  growing  sum. 

It  is  one  of  the  most  significant  steps  in  the 
progress  of  the  New  Earth,  this  destruction  of 

101 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

one  of  the  world's  greatest  foes  by  means  pro- 
vided by  nature  and  carried  out  by  man.  A 
problem  which  has  not  only  baffled  the  skill 
of  the  world  since  man  first  came  upon  it,  but 
in  whose  solution  fortunes  have  been  sunk, 
appears  now  to  have  been  solved,  as  many 
another  problem  has  been  solved,  by  the 
simplest  of  factors ; — the  remedy  has  been  at 
hand  all  the  centuries ;  it  has  only  needed 
application. 


102 


CHAPTER   VII 

THE  WEEDS  OF  THE  EARTH 

fTIHE  affairs  of  the  New  Earth  do  not 
-•-  always  move  smoothly.  There  are  breaks 
and  interruptions,  obstacles  are  interposed ; 
indeed,  far  and  beyond  these  in  injury  are  the 
robbers,  persistently,  systematically,  ruthlessly 
stealing,  and,  when  balked,  not  hesitating  to 
press  forward  into  cruelty.  These  robbers  are 
reinforced  in  their  activities,  and  re-supplied 
with  strength,  from  the  very  sources  out  of 
which  their  victims  derive  their  own  life,  and 
thus  are  doubly  dangerous.  It  is  quite  as 
though  the  burglar  who  enters  your  house  by 
night  was  also  your  son,  living  upon  that 
which  you  have  yourself  accumulated. 

Or  it  may  be  that  to  some  the  untoward 
situation  which  is  presented  suggests  rather  an 
organized  internecine  strife,  a  war  between 
members  of  the  same  blood  though  differing 
in  inclination  and  tastes.  Looked  at  from  this 
point  of  view,  the  strife  is  like  that  between 

103 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

national  factions,  the  tide  of  battle  now  turn- 
ing this  way,  now  that,  but  a  strife  in  which 
one  or  the  other  of  the  two  must  eventually 
conquer,  there  can  be  no  compromise.  Just  as 
two  practically  independent  nations  with  indi- 
vidual characteristics  positively  defined  cannot 
forever  live  under  the  same  flag,  so  these 
factors  must  stand  apart.  Once  let  them  come 
into  collision,  extermination  must  be  the 
portion  of  one  or  the  other. 

Or  still  differently  looked  at,  this  untoward 
situation  in  nature  may  suggest  the  survival  of 
the  fittest, — that  age-long  process  depicted  by 
the  scientists  in  which  the  weaker  is  ever 
giving  way  to  the  stronger  and  the  stronger 
ever  giving  place  to  the  still  stronger,  and  all 
slowly  moving  onward  to  a  perfected  whole. 

But  from  whichever  point  of  view  you  look, 
be  it  robbery  or  war  or  the  survival  of  the 
fittest,  the  weeds  of  the  earth  constitute  one 
of  the  most  formidable  agents  ever  established 
for  man's  overthrow.  It  is  only  as  he  conquers 
them  that  he  rises.  To  whatever  measure  he 
yields  to  them,  to  that  measure  he  is  held  in 
bondage.  And,  after  all  is  said  and  done,  man, 
in  the  physical  sense,  is  but  at  best  a  weakling. 

104 


THE   WEEDS   OF  THE   EARTH 

He  can  kill  other  men,  he  can,  in  a  measure, 
subdue  nature,  he  can  build  up  cities  and  tear 
them  down.  But  in  the  presence  of  the  tor- 
nado, when  the  sudden  rush  of  the  mighty 
locusts  is  in  the  air,  when  the  lightning  bolt 
falls,  or  the  earthquake  sends  forth  its  tremors, 
or  the  hurricane  sweeps  his  open  boat  in  the 
sea,  indeed,  even  with  all  his  progress,  when 
the  great  White  Plague  is  at  the  door,  he  is 
powerless. 

And  when  he  lets  Nature,  in  the  amplitude 
of  her  vegetative  powers,  overtake  him,  he  is 
well-nigh  as  helpless.  The  weeds  of  the  earth, 
vagabonds  that  they  sometimes  seem,  outlaws 
and  outcasts,  have  a  power  not  to  be  looked 
upon  lightly.  Their  onslaughts  are  not  mat- 
ters of  centuries  or  decades,  but  of  seasons, 
even  of  months  or  weeks.  By  some  sinister 
provision  they  are  marvelously  fecund.  Under 
drought  and  neglect  they  thrive.  When  man 
ignores  them,  they  rise  to  the  height  of  their 
powers. 

All  sorts  of  definitions  of  weeds  have  come 
with  their  close  study  under  the  men  of  the 
New  Earth.  One  scientist  says  a  weed  is :  "Any 
useless  or  troublesome  plant."  Others  say: 

105 


THE    NEW  EARTH 

"Every  plant  which  grows  in  a  field  other 
than  that  of  which  the  seed  has  been  (inten- 
tionally) sown  by  the  husbandman  is  a  weed." 

"Any  plant  which  obtrusively  occupies  cul- 
tivated or  dressed  ground  to  the  exclusion  of 
some  particular  crop  intended  to  be  grown. 
Thus  even  the  most  useful  plants  may  become 
weeds  if  they  appear  out  of  their  proper  place. 
The  term  is  sometimes  applied  to  any  insignifi- 
cant-looking or  unprofitable  plants  which  grow 
profusely  in  a  state  of  nature;  also  to  any 
noxious  or  useless  plant." 

"Weeds  are  plants  which  tend  to  take 
prevalent  possession  of  soil  used  for  man's 
purposes  irrespective  of  his  will  and,  in  accord- 
ance with  usage,  we  may  restrict  the  term  to 
herbs.  Any  herb  whatever  when  successfully 
aggressive  becomes  a  weed." 

"A  weed,  so  far  as  the  farmer  is  concerned, 
is  any  plant  whose  growth  interferes  with  that 
of  the  crops  to  which  the  soil  is  for  the  time 
being  devoted.  The  idea  of  uselessness  is 
always  present  in  the  mind  when  weeds  are 
spoken  of." 

"Any  unsightly  or  troublesome  herbaceous 
plant  that  is  at  the  same  time  useless,  or  com- 

106 


THE   WEEDS   OF   THE   EARTH 

paratively  so,  as  a  burdock  or  a  dandelion: 
especially  such  a  plant  as  is  positively  nox- 
ious or  injurious  to  crops;  also  any  herbaceous 
plant  out  of  place,  as  a  poppy  in  a  wheat  field 
or  a  stalk  of  wheat  in  a  flower  garden." 

"Any  one  of  those  herbaceous  plants  which 
are  useless  and  without  special  beauty,  or  es- 
pecially which  are  positively  troublesome.  The 
application  of  this  general  term  is  somewhat 
relative.  Handsome  but  pernicious  plants,  as 
the  ox-eye  daisy,  the  corn-flower,  and  the 
purple  cow- wheat  of  Europe,  are  weeds  to  the 
agriculturist,  flowers  to  the  esthetic.  So  also 
plants  that  are  cultivated  for  use  or  beauty,  as 
grasses,  hemp,  carrot,  parsnip,  morning-glory, 
become  weeds  when  they  spring  up  where 
they  are  not  wanted.  The  exotics  of  cold 
countries  are  sometimes  weeds  in  the  tropics." 

"The  general  name  of  any  plant  that  is  use- 
less or  troublesome.  The  word,  therefore,  has 
no  definite  application  to  any  particular  plant 
or  species  of  plants,  but  is  applied  generally  to 
such  plants  as  grow  where  they  are  not  wanted 
and  are  either  of  no  use  to  man  or  injurious 
to  crops." 

As  man  through  the  centuries  has  drawn 

107 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

distinctions  between  the  tame  and  the  wild 
plants,  he  has  been  ascribing  all  manner  of 
curious  characteristics  to  those  which  have 
been  outside  the  pale  of  civilization.  Certain 
peculiar  qualities  which  the  form  or  odor  or 
size  of  the  weed  in  some  way  suggested  were 
applied  by  people  with  more  or  less  vivid  im- 
aginations and  have  clung  desperately  to  the 
weeds  themselves.  As  the  newer  knowledge 
has  advanced,  the  absurdity  of  many  of  the 
names,  in  so  far  as  signifying  any  real  quality 
is  concerned,  has  become  apparent.  The 
manner  by  which  these  outcasts  were  given 
their  names  has  in  it  such  peculiar  interest 
that  a  volume  might  be  prepared  upon  them. 
The  list  of  curiously  named  weeds  is  long — but 
a  few  of  them  will  illustrate  the  point:  Con- 
sumptive's-weed,  otherwise  known  as  bear's- 
weed,  cancer-weed,  asthma-weed,  salt-rheum- 
weed,  Guinea-hen-weed,  turpentine-weed,  joy- 
weed,  rattlesnake-weed,  soldier's-weed,  bind- 
weed, bishop's-weed,  mermaid-weed,  dyer's- 
weed,  breast-weed,  knot-weed,  butter-weed, 
lake-weed,  licorice-weed,  carpet-weed,  rag- 
weed, trumpet-weed,  mat-weed,  mug-weed, 
neck-weed,  ore-weed,  morass-weed,  tumble- 

108 


- 
II 


THE   WEEDS   OF   THE   EARTH 

weed,  winter-weed,  milk-weed,  cross-weed, 
crazy-weed,  emetic-weed,  chicken-weed,  cow- 
weed,  bird-weed,  ague- weed, — the  list  is  indeed 
long  and  curious. 

The  more  one  studies  the  character  of  these 
important  factors  in  nature,  the  more  one 
comes  to  comprehend  their  power.  They  not 
only  compel  man  to  make  enormous  sacrifice 
of  time  in  cultivation  and  of  money  in  the 
buying  of  implements  to  subdue  them,  but 
they  stand  ready,  if  he  make  one  false  neglect- 
ful step,  to  ruin  him.  They  do  not  yield  at  a 
single  attack,  either,  for  beyond  almost  all 
other  plants  they  have  the  qualities  of  hardi- 
ness and  persistence.  The  part  they  have 
played,  too,  all  unintentionally,  in  the  develop- 
ment of  man's  own  self-reliance  is  not  small. 
As  no  gain  worth  the  having  ever  comes  with- 
out struggle,  so  no  step  forward  on  the  part  of 
man  in  his  development  of  the  earth  can  be 
made  without  meeting  and  vanquishing  these 
bitter  foes,  thus  adding  measurably  to  his 
own  strength.  As  the  knowledge  of  the  New 
Earth  has  broadened,  men  have  learned  that 
the  weeds  which  were  so  often  neglected  in 
past  years  must  have  most  serious  and  earnest 

109 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

attention.  So,  in  the  schools  where  agriculture 
is  now  taught,  no  closer  attention  is  paid  to 
any  one  subject  than  to  that  of  the  weeds  of 
the  earth.  The  students  are  taught  how  to  tell 
the  weeds  on  sight,  all  about  their  botanical 
construction,  their  life-history,  how  powerfully 
they  work  to  take  nutriment  away  from  the 
soil.  Weeds  of  every  kind  in  the  locality  are 
brought  to  the  class.  Not  only  are  they  studied 
with  as  great  care  as  the  beneficent  plants  of 
the  garden,  the  hothouse  and  the  field,  but 
the  student  must  be  able  accurately  to  name 
and  designate  them  merely  by  their  seeds, 
branches  or  leaves.  Given  a  handful  of  leaves, 
or  branches,  or  seeds,  scores  of  kinds  among 
them,  he  must  be  able  to  construct  from  them 
the  entire  list  of  plants,  much  as  a  paleontolo- 
gist reconstructs  a  pre-historic  animal  from 
a  broken  tooth  embedded  in  the  rocks  for 
numberless  ages.  Much  is  learned,  too,  about 
the  practical  side  of  the  question,  based  upon 
scientific  exactness.  The  students  are  shown 
on  due  authority  that  the  weeds  in  a  given 
crop  may  easily  reduce  the  yield  of  the  crop 
by  fifty  per  cent  simply  by  taking  from  the 
soil  the  nutriment  the  crop  is  entitled  to  and 

110 


THE   WEEDS   OF   THE   EARTH 

absorbing  the  moisture  which  belongs  by 
right  to  the  crop.  Not  only  do  the  weeds 
take  up  useful  space,  throw  the  crop  into  the 
shade  and  prevent  the  access  of  the  sun,  but 
the  necessary  heat  is  kept  out  and  the  requisite 
amount  of  air  is  withheld.  When  the  weeds 
are  analyzed  they  frequently  show,  as  has  been 
demonstrated  by  Prof.  John  Percival,  of  the 
Agricultural  College  of  Wye,  England,  high 
percentages  of  potash  and  phosphates.  Again, 
in  spite  of  the  utmost  care,  weeds  are  often 
harvested  with  the  seeds  of  the  crop  proper, 
reducing  largely  the  market  value  of  the  crop, 
and  injuring,  in  the  case  of  wheat,  the  quality 
of  the  flour  made,  unless  the  utmost  care  is 
exercised  in  cleaning  before  milling.  The  stu- 
dent learns  of  all  this ;  of  parasitic  weeds  that 
grow  upon  reputable  plants  and  sap  their  life ; 
that  weeds  harbor  and  give  food  to  insect 
pests ;  that  many  weeds  are  poisonous  to  stock 
and  that  others  not  poisonous  yet  give  disa- 
greeable tastes  and  odors  to  the  milk  of  the 
cattle  who  feed  upon  them.  Nature  is  lavish 
in  her  gifts  to  the  weeds.  She  gives  the  most 
of  them  marvelous  fecundity,  so  that  a  single 
seed  will  produce  as  many  as  three  hundred 

111 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

other  seeds,  and  each  of  these  three  hundred, 
three  hundred  more  apiece,  the  increase  being 
at  a  rate  too  enormous  for  comprehension.  A 
single  seed  may  thus  in  three  generations— 
probably,  under  favoring  conditions,  less  than  a 
year  to  a  generation — become  the  parent  of 
twenty-seven  million  offspring. 

And  every  one  of  these  millions  is  of  the 
robber  brood,  each  one  taking  for  his  own 
worthless  purposes  that  which  should  go  to 
the  enrichment  of  the  earth.  Some  of  the 
weeds  are  not  only  powerful  in  their  attacks 
upon  the  storehouse  of  the  soil  by  reason  of 
the  new  plants  constantly  developing  from  the 
seeds,  but  they  add  to  their  robber  equipment 
an  underground  system  of  attack.  They  send 
out  stolons  or  rootlets,  so  to  call  them,  which 
at  intervals  send  roots  downward  and  new 
plants  upward,  doing  all  far  out  of  the  sight  of 
man.  Others  persistently  send  out  runners 
above  ground,  which  also  at  frequent  intervals 
take  root  and  form  thrifty  new  plants.  Various 
devices  for  the  preservation  and  extension  of 
their  sway  are  put  to  use.  Mechanical  contri- 
vances are  common  by  which,  when  the  time 
has  come  for  the  liberation  of  the  ripe  seed,  it 

112 


THE   WEEDS   OF  THE   EARTH 

is  thrown  out  with  much  force  so  that  it  and 
its  fellows,  flying  at  different  angles,  will  cover 
the  widest  possible  territory.  Many  are  so  pre- 
pared with  wings  or  their  substitutes  that  they 
are  wafted  hither  or  thither  on  the  lightest 
breeze.  Some  bear  a  stout  hook  which,  when 
the  seed  has  been  blown  upon  cattle  or  sheep, 
fastens  the  seed  down  into  the  hair  or  wool,  to 
be  loosened  later  by  the  animals  as  they  rub 
them  out  of  their  long  coats,  thus  scattering 
the  weeds  far  and  wide.  There  is  something 
distinctly  marauding  in  the  sight  of  a  long 
procession  of  the  hateful  Russian  thistles  bowl- 
ing along  across  a  fertile  prairie  in  the  autumn 
wind,  scattering  their  evil  selves  over  vast 
reaches  of  country  and  doing  untold  damage 
unless  peremptorily  challenged. 

The  student  learns  that  there  is  only  one 
word  that  applies  to  weed  treatment  if  the 
farmer  is  to  maintain  his  independence, — exter- 
mination. The  life-history  of  the  weed  must 
be  studied, — its  structure,  its  inclination,  its 
habits,  its  peculiarities,  its  underground  life 
fully  as  much  as  that  above  ground ;  but,  above 
all,  the  best  methods  of  extermination  must 
be  clearly  learned  in  each  individual  case.  The 

113 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

soil  best  adapted  to  their  predatory  wants 
must  be  considered,  also,  in  order  that  the 
farmer  may  be  forearmed  for  their  destruction 
should  they  be  reported  on  the  way.  Strange 
migrations  of  weeds  are  noted.  It  appears  that 
they  have  stood  most  persistently  in  the  way 
of  glaciers,  refusing  to  yield  until  crushed,  and 
that  as  soon  as  the  ice  age  passed  and  the 
warm  zone  rose,  they  persistently  made  their 
way  back  again  to  the  place  from  which  they 
had  been  driven.  So  they  will  migrate  when 
cultivation  has  apparently  exterminated  them, 
leaving  the  haunts  of  man  for  more  hospitable, 
wilder  places.  But  once  let  man's  vigilance 
cease  to  be  eternal,  back  again  they  troop,  a 
ragged,  robbing  horde,  taking  possession  of 
the  earth  and  converting  the  beautiful  fields 
into  wretched  regions,  fit  only  for  the  haunts 
of  the  wild. 

The  weed  is  the  clearest  type  of  the  savage. 
It  may  in  time  be  tamed,  it  may  become  even 
highly  civilized  by  the  introduction  of  gentler 
blood  into  its  veins,  it  may  even  be  utilized  to 
give  tone  and  strength  to  an  overdone  and 
effeminate  race  of  civilized  plants,  but  it  is 
essentially  and  forever  savage  if  left  to  itself. 

114 


THE   WEEDS   OF   THE   EARTH 

And  even  if  it  come  under  the  influence  of 
civilization  it  will  break  away  on  the  slightest 
provocation,  and,  if  not  held  in  check,  will 
rapidly  go  back  to  its  old  wild,  wandering 
ways. 

I  have  always  had  a  strong  admiration  for 
those  powerful  hordes  who  swept  down  across 
the  face  of  Europe  in  the  early  centuries  of 
the  Christian  era  and  threw  themselves  in  all 
their  savage  fury  upon  the  civilization  of  the 
great  South.  And  one  cannot  but  admire,  in 
a  certain  contradictory  sense,  the  tremendous 
power  that  nature  has  given  to  these  vegeta- 
tion savages  as  they  sweep  resistlessly  across 
the  earth,  unless  checked,  and  held  in  check, 
by  the  concerted  efforts  of  succeeding  civiliza- 
tions. If  but  during  this  one  generation  of  the 
New  Earth,  in  which  man  in  the  mass  has 
learned  more  about  these  enemies  than  he  had 
ever  known  before,  there  should  have  been  a 
universal  abandonment  of  this  concerted  effort 
to  keep  down  the  weeds  of  the  globe,  the 
gaunt  figure  of  Famine,  arm  in  arm  with 
Disease,  and  both  overshadowed  by  Death, 
would  today  stalk  unmolested  across  the 
earth,  and  man  would  rapidly  approach  the 

115 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

same  extermination  he  now  must  wage  against 
this  tireless  foe  of  the  race. 

While  man  through  all  the  centuries,  in  a 
more  or  less  successful  way,  has  been  combat- 
ting these  enemies,  and  while,  in  America 
alone,  he  has  spent  hundreds  of  millions  of 
dollars  for  fighting  armament  in  the  form  of 
countless  machines  combining  weed  destruc- 
tion with  cultivation,  he  has  yet  been  com- 
pelled to  go  further  than  this  wholly  individual 
effort  and  turn  his  attention  to  legislative 
action.  Not  all  men  who  gain  their  living 
from  the  earth  have  taken  note  of  the  danger; 
few  indeed,  even  of  those  who  have  studied 
most  closely  have  ever  come  to  any  adequate 
comprehension  of  its  magnitude,  though,  as 
knowledge  has  broadened,  there  have  been 
many  who  have  come  to  a  realization  of  the 
imperative  necessity  of  concerted  action.  So, 
to  safeguard  the  many  from  the  neglect  of  the 
few,  laws  have  been  enacted,  stringently  en- 
forced, for  the  prevention  and  eradication  of 
these  foes.  It  would  be  of  interest,  did  space 
permit,  to  show  how  widespread  has  been  leg- 
islative action  against  weeds  by  the  individual 
states  during  the  last  fifteen  years. 

116 


•si 


CHAPTER  VIII 

LUTHER  BURBANK 

TN  any  consideration  of  the  dominant  forces 
-*•  manifested  in  this  regeneration  of  the 
earth,  we  may  not  overlook  the  powerful  influ- 
ence of  the  greatest  of  all  plant-breeders, 
Luther  Burbank.  As  the  study  of  new  con- 
ditions involves  the  earth  and  its  products  as 
well,  we  may  turn  briefly  to  the  work  of  Mr. 
Burbank  as  particularly  suggestive  of  great 
and  novel  events. 

The  New  Earth  abounds  in  surprises.  It 
has  apparently  discarded  its  older  prosaic  self, 
partly  because  it  has  become  so  much  more 
a  source  of  happiness  for  man,  partly  because 
so  many  strange,  and,  indeed,  spectacular, 
changes  have  been  effected.  It  has  been  a 
rare  alchemy  which  has  been  wrought  in  the 
alembic  of  the  agriculturists,  the  transmut- 
ing of  the  lead  of  the  commonplace  and  often 
the  iron  of  the  obnoxious  into  the  gold  of 
delight  and  the  sterling  silver  of  service. 

117 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

Perhaps  more  than  any  other  man  in  the 
world  has  Mr.  Burbank,  though  not  an  agri- 
culturist, taken  part  in  this  transformation. 
He  has  worked  with  vital  forces.  He  has  gone 
out  beyond  those  who  have  done  strange 
things  with  electricity  and  chemicals  into  a 
realm  where  throbbing  life  abounds.  He  has 
dealt  with  life  itself,  seen  and  unseen  ;  he  has 
laid  hold  on  this  life,  the  marvelous  life  of 
nature,  and  molded  it  to  his  own  patterns. 

From  him  dates  a  new  epoch  in  the  plant 
development  of  the  world.  His  greatest  work 
ahead  of  him,  he  has  yet  accomplished  more 
than  any  plant-breeder  in  the  world  in  the 
way  of  the  glorification  and  enrichment  of  the 
earth.  This  may  easily  be  proven  by  a  glance 
at  his  many  lines  of  work,  far  too  many  for 
enumeration  here,  as  they  embrace  over  two 
thousand  five  hundred  distinct  productions 
brought  forth  in  the  midst  of  exhaustive  ex- 
periments in  every  department  of  plant-life, 
and  by  their  suggestiveness,  especially  in  the 
amelioration  of  the  race.  He  has  been  con- 
structive from  the  very  start,  from  the  produc- 
tion of  the  potato  which  bears  his  name  and 
which  has  been  of  such  immense  economic 

118 


LUTHER   BURBANK 

importance,  his  first  creation,  down  through 
the  long  line  that  stretches  across  a  third  of 
a  century  and  is  still  moving  outward  and 
upward, — always  constructive.  He  has  taken 
life  and,  while,  apparently,  removing  some- 
thing from  it  in  order  to  reach  his  aims,  has, 
in  reality,  only  added  to  it,  transforming  it  by 
constructive  methods  solely  into  a  higher  form 
of  life  than  it  had  ever  before  possessed.  And 
it  is  a  higher  form,  too,  than  unaided  nature 
ever  could  have  attained.  Mr.  Burbank  stands 
as  the  most  conspicuous  aid  to  Nature  in 
improving  plant  products  for  the  race,  the 
leader  in  massing  and  commanding  her  forces 
in  this  direction ;  should  it  so  be  that  others 
shall  jirise  to  carry  forward  his  great  work 
whenvhe  shall  have  laid  it  down,  his  influ- 
ence will  be  still  more  difficult  to  measure  in 
words. 

His  life-work  may  be  included  under  a  dual 
aim,  so  to  call  it,  embracing,  first,  the  recreat- 
ing or  regenerating  of  old  forms  of  plant-life, 
wild,  neglected  or  degenerate  and  the  im- 
proving of  those  by  many  considered  satisfac- 
tory but  in  which  he  sees  room  for  important 
additions ;  and,  second,  the  creation  of  entirely 

119 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

new  forms  of  life,  to  supplant  inefficient  ones 
or  to  stand  apart  as  unique  additions  to  the 
vegetable  kingdom.  He  has  primarily  accom- 
plished his  work  by  a  series  of  systematic 
experiments  covering,  in  each  instance,  periods 
of  many  years ;  though  this  is  but  the  outward 
manifestation  of  his  activities.  It  speaks  noth- 
ing of  the  intense  application,  the  wonderful 
inventive  powers  by  which  he  is  enabled  to 
make  selection  of  the  one  best  of,  say,  a 
hundred  thousand  plants,  the  patience,  the 
scientific  searching  for  new  truths,  the  con- 
summate art  in  the  blending  of  life  forces 
never  before  united. 

Mr.  Burbank's  life  is  many-sided,  its  facets 
surpassingly  brilliant.  It  is  the  diamond  of  a 
supreme  unselfishness.  We  may  throw  light 
from  but  two  of  these  facets  for  present  pur- 
poses, bringing  forth,  first,  that  he  has  never 
wasted  any  time  in  the  production  of  a  fruit 
or  a  flower  merely  for  the  sake  of  having  it 
said  that  he  had  done  some  unusual  thing; 
and,  second,  that  he  has  accomplished  all  he 
has  done  by  dint  of  the  utmost  labor,  weary- 
ing, many  times  to  the  very  last  degree,  often, 
in  his  earlier  years,  in  the  stress  of  privation 

120 


LUTHER   BURBANK 

and  want,  with  the  ultimate  end  always  in 
view  of  producing  that  which  should  help  the 
world. 

In  furtherance  of  this  latter,  he  has  sold  his 
new  creations  with  the  distinct  understanding 
that  there  were  no  restrictions  upon  them,  so 
that  the  general  public  could  secure  them  at 
the  earliest  moment,  while  the  money  he  has 
received  he  has  devoted  to  the  carrying  for- 
ward of  other  tests. 

He  has  had  always  before  him,  in  the  crea- 
tion of  a  new  fruit,  its  adaptability  to  the 
needs  of  man,  never  seeking  to  make  greater 
varieties  of  fruits  for  the  mere  purpose  of 
showing  that  it  could  be  done,  but  having  a 
definite,  practical  aim  before  him, — the  new 
fruit  must  be  better  than  the  old,  better  in 
point  of  food,  beauty,  yield,  shipping  qualities, 
adaptable  to  a  wider  zone  of  culture  than  those 
that  had  preceded  it. 

His  ends  have  been  accomplished  along  the 
general  lines  of  breeding  and  selection,  cross- 
ing two  plants  to  produce  a  better  than  either, 
and  then,  through  a  long  series  of  years, 
steadily  selecting  the  very  best  of  their  prog- 
eny until,  at  last,  he  gets  a  plant  that  reaches 

121 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

the  ideal  he  had  set  for  it  from  the  beginning. 
Oftentimes  strange  new  traits  have  developed, 
and  these  have  been  carefully  fostered  if  they 
seemed  to  lead  to  something  better;  but  if  they 
merely  seemed  to  promise  something  spectac- 
ular, they  have  at  once  been  consigned  to  the 
fire.  So  he  has  gone  forward,  making  improved 
flowers,  fruits,  grasses,  nuts,  trees  and  vege- 
tables,— indeed,  more  than  this,  creating  wholly 
new  ones  by  combinations  hitherto  believed 
impossible.  Where  he  can  guide  the  forces  of 
Nature  for  the  benefit  of  man,  he  does  so ; 
where  he  can  lead  her  beyond  her  usual  mani- 
festations, he  does  so  with  the  utmost  rever- 
ence for  her.  If  he  sees  that  two  widely 
separated  plants  may  be  united  to  produce  a 
third  far  better  than  either,  he  does  not  hesi- 
tate to  do  that  which  Nature  unaided  could 
never  accomplish  in  a  thousand  years, — he 
joins  them  in  the  most  intimate  union,  merg- 
ing one  life  for  all  time  into  the  other. 

In  accomplishing  all  that  he  has  achieved, 
he  has  worked  along  two  main  lines, — the  sci- 
tific  and  the  practical, — never  losing  sight  of 
either.  He  is  the  most  practical  of  men  in 
making  a  new  plant  or  recreating  an  old  one; 

122 


LUTHER   BURBANK 

but  he  is  preeminently  the  man  of  science,  at 
the  same  time,  continually  adding  to  the  total 
of  human  knowledge,  continually  exploring 
regions  before  unmapped.  He  has  worked 
with  a  million  plants  if  needs  be  in  a  single 
test,  so  that  he  has  had  incomparable  oppor- 
tunities for  observation.  It  was  in  recognition 
of  this  dual  character  of  his  work,  and  of  the 
enormous  possibilities  stretching  out  before 
it  in  each  line,  that  the  Carnegie  Institution 
of  Washington  offered  him  a  grant  of  one  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars  for  the  ten-year  period 
beginning  with  1905.  By  means  of  this  grant 
Mr.  Burbank  will  be  enabled  to  carry  on  his 
work  on  a  very  much  larger  scale,  both  as  to 
its  practical  character  and  in  the  interests  of 
science.  The  subvention  came  to  him  unasked 
—it  was  accepted  as  it  was  offered  in  the  spirit 
of  service  to  man. 

Among  the  most  important  of  Mr.  Bur- 
bank's  creations,  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
New  Earth,  are  a  new  series  of  hybrid  thorn- 
less,  edible  cacti,  by  means  of  which  the  desert 
places  of  the  earth  are  to  be  reclaimed;  the 
new  fast-growing  trees  which  will  aid  in 
rapidly  re-foresting  denuded  areas;  the  long 

123 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

list  of  improved  fruits ;  the  creation  of  the 
primus  berry,  the  phenomenal  berry,  and  the 
plumcot,  absolutely  new  species  produced  by 
the  hand  of  man ;  new  and  improved  varieties 
of  vegetables;  grasses  for  lawn  and  forage 
superior  to  the  old  and  far  more  hardy  and 
prolific;  new  and  vastly  improved  strains  of 
flowers,  more  beautiful,  hardier,  larger,  in  every 
way  enhanced ; — these  but  hint  at  the  creations 
from  his  hand,  while  others  promising  still 
more  for  the  world  are  under  way. 

World-wide  attention  has  been  attracted  to 
the  man  and  his  work.  Newspaper  and  maga- 
zine comment  and  descriptions  have  been 
widespread  in  this  and  foreign  countries.  He 
has  been  given  recognition  such  as  few  men  in 
private  or  public  life  ever  receive.  But  the 
only  result  of  this  universal  praise  has  been  to 
strengthen  the  determination  to  do  yet  more  for 
the  world.  Mr.  Burbank  is  never  unmindful  of 
appreciation,  just  as  he  is  never  in  any  sense 
influenced  by  mere  flattery.  The  recognition 
has  come  from  people  in  all  ranks  of  life,  from 
the  very  poor  and  the  very  rich,  from  the  day- 
laborer  and  from  crowned  heads  in  Europe, 
from  scientific  men  and  practical  men  of 

124, 


LUTHER   BURBANK 

affairs,  from  learned  societies  and  from  institu- 
tions of  learning. 

Thousands  of  visitors  have  made  the  pilgri- 
mage to  his  home  in  Santa  Rosa,  California, 
every  year.  The  most  determined  effort  has 
been  made  on  Mr.  Burbank's  part  to  lessen  the 
number  of  these  visitors,  not  because  he  has 
anything  secret  in  his  work,  for  it  is  all  as 
open  as  the  day,  not  because  he  holds  himself 
aloof  from  people,  for  no  man  takes  a  livelier 
interest  in  men  and  affairs;  but  because  his 
work  demands  that  he  be  left  alone.  His 
grounds  at  Santa  Rosa  and  Sebastopol,  his 
larger  proving  place  some  eight  miles  from 
Santa  Rosa,  are  absolutely  private.  No  person 
has  any  right  to  disregard  the  plainly  written 
signs  which  have  been  posted  at  his  gates. 
Not  only  do  visitors  consume  much  of  his 
time,  thus  wearing  heavily  upon  his  strength, 
but  they  interrupt  him  in  the  midst  of  experi- 
ments which  demand  constant  supervision. 
Thus  the  loss  is  two-fold,  to  the  man  in  energy 
wasted,  to  the  world  in  new  achievements. 

Very  much  of  beginning  work  in  the  tests 
commences  at  Santa  Rosa.  Here,  on  the 
grounds  where  Mr.  Burbank  has  his  home,  are 

125 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

several  acres  devoted  to  preliminary  tests  and, 
in  the  case  of  many  flowers,  to  final  tests.  At 
Sebastopol  are  some  seventeen  acres  of  ground 
where  events  move  on  a  larger  though  not 
more  interesting  scale.  Here  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  fruit  trees,  vines,  shrubs  and 
plants  of  all  descriptions  are  under  test  at  the 
same  time.  In  all  cases,  the  chief  factors  in  the 
work  are  breeding  and  selection,  and  here  selec- 
tion assumes  its  most  important  feature;  for 
often  the  best  plant  must  be  chosen  by  Mr. 
Burbank  out  of  ten  thousand, — indeed,  out  of 
a  hundred  thousand,  it  may  be. 

When  the  new  plant  has  been  grown  for  a 
sufficient  number  of  generations,  so  that  it  will 
not  go  backward  to  some  former  inferior  con- 
dition, it  is  ready  for  the  world.  It  has  re- 
ceived the  final  test,  it  has  passed  the  last 
examination,  it  is  a  full-fledged  graduate  with 
this  exception  that,  instead  of  beginning  life 
and  learning  the  ways  of  the  world,  it  has 
been  completely  fitted  for  its  service  during 
the  years  it  has  been  in  training.  In  order  to 
accomplish  all  that  he  has  done,  Mr.  Burbank 
has  drawn  heavily  upon  his  physical  resources ; 
sometimes,  indeed,  he  has  made  an  overdraft 

126 


LUTHER   BURBANK 

that  has  caused  him  annoyance;  but  so  abso- 
lutely temperate  is  his  life  that  he  has  always 
been  able  to  recuperate  when  the  long  strain 
of  some  protracted  test  has  ended.  He  has  in- 
finite patience,  the  rarest  intuition,  never  yield- 
ing to  discouragements,  never  led  into  torpor 
by  the  splendid  series  of  triumphs  that  have 
attended  his  course. 

The  New  Earth  of  today  is  his  debtor  be- 
yond words;  tomorrow  his  service  shall  be  of 
far  greater  significance,  for  in  all  that  Mr.  Bur- 
bank  does  it  is  the  future  that  reaps  great- 
est. It  has  been  many  years  since  he  created 
the  potato,  for  instance,  which  bears  his  name, 
and  it  has  been  steadily  adding  millions  of 
dollars  to  the  national  wealth.  So,  with  many 
of  his  creations,  their  development  comes  with 
the  years.  It  is  only  about  twelve  years  since, 
in  1893,  he  gave  up  a  large  and  lucrative  nur- 
sery business  in  order  to  devote  his  entire  time 
to  the  production  of  new  creations,  and  to 
educate  the  world,  so  to  speak,  to  its  possibili- 
ties in  this  line,  and  very  many  of  his  produc- 
tions,— so  long  the  time  required  to  fit  a  fruit 
or  a  flower  or  a  vegetable  for  the  world, — are 
barely  coming  into  use.  There  are  no  measure- 

127 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

ments  alongside  of  which  to  determine  the 
value  of  his  creations.  It  is  not  more  difficult 
to  tell  how  much  he  has  added  and  will  add  to 
the  world  as  his  fruits  progress,  from  a  com- 
mercial and  practical  point  of  view,  than  to 
tell  how  much  he  has  added  to  the  world's 
store  of  beauty  and  delight. 

Great  as  have  been  his  achievements,  both  as 
a  man  of  the  practical  and  as  a  man  of  science, 
enormous  as  must  be  the  sum  of  his  benefits 
to  the  world,  they  are  still  less  than  that 
which  shines  out  of  his  life  with  a  steady, 
splendid  glow  in  the  midst  of  this  day  of  crass 
indifference  on  the  part  of  many  to  the  rights 
of  others — the  light  of  an  absolute  unselfishness. 
It  is  not  a  light  which  is,  after  all,  though  pow- 
erful, of  chief  value  to  show  the  way  to  him ;  it 
is,  rather,  the  one  which  goes  out  in  every  direc- 
tion wherever  he  has  sent  a  plant  or  a  seed, 
forever  making  new  centers  of  light  for  others. 
The  world  has  much  to  learn  of  Luther  Bur- 
bank  along  the  path  of  knowledge  and  in  the 
realm  of  science :  it  has  more  to  learn  from  the 
example  of  the  man  himself. 


128 


CHAPTER  IX 

HORTICULTURAL  PROGRESS 

*T^HE  twelfth  census  of  the  United  States, 
-*-  of  the  year  1900,  was  the  first  one  in  the 
history  of  the  country  in  which  an  effort  was 
made  to  obtain  definite  reports  of  the  value  of 
fruits  grown  in  the  United  States.  During 
nearly  two  centuries  and  a-half  fruit-growing 
had  been  largely  a  matter  of  the  individual, 
never  commanding  enough,  in  a  commercial 
way,  to  warrant  national  recognition. 

The  development  of  the  fruit  industry,  how- 
ever, in  the  period  of  which  this  book  treats, 
had  been  so  rapid  that  the  government  took 
large  pains  in  this  census  properly  to  show  the 
extent  and  importance  of  this  new  factor  in 
national  life.  Fruits  had  been  grown  from  the 
beginning.  Indeed,  in  that  far  day  when  Norse 
Lief,  son  of  Eric,  made  his  memorable  voyage 
to  the  new  world,  in  the  year  1000,  it  was  the 
abundance  of  grapes  which  he  found  growing 
wild  that  caused  him  to  name  the  region  Vine- 

129 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

land.  In  1562,  came  oranges,  planted  by  the 
Spaniards  where  now  stands  St.  Augustine, 
Florida,  and  about  the  same  time  the  Jesuit 
fathers,  in  the  Great  Lakes  region,  introduced 
the  pear.  The  first  vineyard  came  in  1610, 
planted  by  Lord  Delaware,  in  Maryland, 
though  the  native  grapes  that  were  found  by 
some  of  the  early  explorers  in  the  Virginia 
region  were  pronounced  fully  equal  to  the  best 
European  grapes.  The  colonists,  in  New  Eng- 
land, found  many  wild  berries  and  grapes  that 
delighted  their  hearts.  One,  William  Wood,  is 
quoted  as  reporting  back  to  England  in  1629: 
"There  is  likewise  Strawberries  in  abun- 
dance, verie  large  ones,  some  being  two  inches 
about;  one  may  gather  halfe  a  bushell  in  a 
forenoone.  In  other  seasons  there  be  Goose- 
berries, Bilberries,  Resberries,  Treacleberries, 
Hurtleberries,  Currants,  which,  being  dried  in 
the  Sunne,  are  little  inferior  to  those  that  our 
Grocers  sell  in  England.  The  Cherrie  trees 
yield  great  store  of  Cherries,  which  grow  on 
clusters  like  grapes;  they  be  much  smaller 
than  our  English  cherry,  nothing  near  so  good 
if  they  be  not  fully  ripe;  they  so  furre  the 
mouth  that  the  tongue  will  cleave  to  the  roofe 

130 


HORTICULTURAL   PROGRESS 

and  the  throat  wax  hoarse  with  swallowing 
those  red  Bullies  (as  I  may  call  them),  being 
little  better  in  taste.  English  ordering  may 
bring  them  to  be  an  English  Cherry,  but  yet 
they  are  as  wilde  as  Indians.  The  Plummes 
of  the  Countrey  be  better  for  Plumbs  than 
the  Cherries  be  for  Cherries ;  they  be  black  and 
yellow,  about  the  bignesse  of  a  Damson,  of 
a  reasonable  good  taste.  The  white  thorne 
affords  hawes  as  big  as  an  English  Cherrie, 
which  is  esteemed  above  a  Cherrie  for  his 
goodness  and  pleasantnesse  to  the  taste. 
Vines  afford  great  store  of  grapes,  which  are 
very  bigge  both  for  the  grape  and  Cluster, 
sweet  and  good;  These  be  of  two  sorts,  red 
and  white,  there  is  likewise  a  smaller  kinde  of 
grape  which  groweth  in  the  Islands,  which  is 
sooner  ripe  and  more  delectable ;  so  that  there 
is  no  knowne  reason  why  as  good  wine  may 
not  be  made  in  these  parts  as  in  Burdenaux, 
in  France,  being  under  the  same  degree." 

John  Smith  wrote  concerning  some  of  the 
fruit  which  he  found  in  the  new  land : 

"Plumbs  there  be  of  three  sorts.  The  red 
and  white  are  like  our  hedge  plumbs  ;  but  the 
other  which  they  call  Putchamius,  grow  as 

131 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

high  as  Palmeta.  The  fruit  is  like  a  medler ; 
it  is  first  green,  then  yellow,  and  red  when  it 
is  ripe ;  if  it  be  not  ripe  it  will  draw  a  man's 
mouth  awrie  with  much  torment ;  but  when 
it  is  ripe  it  is  as  delicious  as  an  apricot." 

A  pear  tree  in  New  York  city,  planted  as 
early  as  1614  was  still  standing  at  the  corner 
of  Third  avenue  and  Thirteenth  street  in  1866, 
and  perhaps  would  have  been  to  this  day, 
nearly  three  centuries  later,  if  it  had  not  been 
broken  down  by  a  passing  dray.  Apples  came 
before  1639,  for  in  that  year  the  records  show 
that  five  hundred  barrels  of  cider  were  made  in 
New  York.  It  was  not  until  many  years  later, 
at  least  two  centuries,  that  the  apple  devel- 
oped to  any  great  extent  into  a  fruit  to  be 
eaten  out  of  hand;  it  was  for  all  the  earlier 
years  a  cider-producer  chiefly. 

When  the  early  Roman  Catholic  priests 
made  their  memorable  journey  up  from  Mex- 
ico through  the  region  of  Spanish  territory 
now  California,  along  in  the  earlier  and  middle 
part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  they  brought 
with  them  the  olive,  the  pear  and  the  grape, 
and  found  a  most  hospitable  home  for  them. 

But  it  was  not  until  the  New  Earth's  period 

132 


Searching  for  the  peach  root- borer 


HORTICULTURAL   PROGRESS 

that  horticulture  began  to  emerge  from  indi- 
vidual control  into  state  and  national  prom- 
inence. During  this  period  the  growth  has  been 
so  rapid  that  there  are,  in  1906,  more  than 
three  hundred  and  seventy-five  million  fruit 
trees  growing  in  America,  an  increase  in  the 
ten-year  period  1890-1900  of  nearly  two  mil- 
lion trees,  while,  in  the  same  period,  the  out- 
put of  fruit  increased  1,500,000,000  pounds, — a 
suggestion  of  the  impetus  of  the  new  industry 
under  new  conditions. 

It  was  not  until  1886  that  prune-grafting 
began,  the  first  grafting  being  in  San  Jose', 
California,  in  the  Santa  Clara  Valley,  now  the 
richest  prune  region  in  the  world.  Since  that 
date,  in  California  alone  the  prune  crop  is  from 
150,000,000  to  190,000,000  pounds,  while  large 
quantities  are  now  raised  in  the  adjoining 
states  of  Oregon  and  Washington.  It  is  of 
interest  to  note  in  this  relation  that  the  impor- 
tation of  foreign  prunes  fell  away  from  nearly 
35,000,000  pounds  in  1897  to  less  than  500,000 
pounds  in  1904,  owing  to  home  production, 
and  a  very  large  proportion  of  this  latter 
amount,  it  is  said,  was  first  sent  abroad  from 
California,  treated  over  again  in  France,  "pro- 

133 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

cessed"  as  it  is  called,  repacked,  and  sent  back 
to  the  United  States  as  imported  French 
prunes.  Some  hint  of  the  recent  remarkable 
development  in  other  lines  is  seen  in  the  fact 
that,  according  to  the  last  census,  the  apple 
trees  of  the  United  States  in  the  ten-year  pe- 
riod, 1890-1900,  increased  in  number  more  than 
eighty  million.  Eleven  years  ago,  in  1894, 
California  sent  out  a  little  over  five  thousand 
car-loads  of  oranges,  something  like  a  million 
six  hundred  thousand  boxes.  The  shipment 
now  is  about  thirty  thousand  cars  a  year,  over 
ten  million  boxes.  Raisins,  lemons,  olives, 
dried  fruits,  canned  fruits  in  this,  the  largest 
fruit-producing  state  in  the  Union,  have  also 
remarkably  increased  in  production. 

But  one  of  the  most  interesting  of  all  the 
horticultural  developments  of  the  period  of  the 
New  Earth  has  been  the  production  of  figs. 
Figs  of  an  inferior  quality  had  long  been  grown 
in  the  United  States.  Even  in  colonial  days 
the  fig  was  introduced,  but  none  of  the  figs  of 
this  or  later  periods  could  compete  with  the 
Smyrna  fig.  The  reason  for  this  lay  in  the 
powerful  influence  of  a  wasp.  In  the  region 
round  about  Smyrna,  in  Asia  Minor,  the  fig  is 

134 


HORTICULTURAL   PROGRESS 

abundant.  Alongside  the  rich  fig  trees,  or  in 
close  proximity,  are  other  trees,  caprifig  trees, 
so  called,  which  are  the  resort  of  a  wasp  whose 
chief  duty  in  life  is  to  lay  its  eggs  where  they 
will  hatch  out  upon  the  early  fruit  and  blossom 
of  the  caprifig.  Laden  with  pollen  from  the 
caprifig,  the  young  wasps  seek  other  fig  trees 
to  lay  their  eggs,  and  as  there  are  edible  figs  in 
abundance  in  the  region,  they  deposit  the  fruc- 
tifying pollen  they  have  collected  upon  the 
edible  figs  and,  as  a  result,  seeds  develop  in 
abundance,  the  figs  are  greatly  enriched  and 
take  on  a  most  delightful  taste.  Without  the 
aid  of  the  wasp,  even  the  edible  figs  would  be 
of  little  value.  This  led  long  ago  in  Smyrna  to 
caprification,  which  consists  in  suspending  a 
branch  of  the  profichi,  or  first-crop  figs  of  the 
caprifig,  upon  the  branches  of  the  edible  fig. 
The  wasps  hatch  out  on  the  caprifig,  seek  other 
figs,  find  the  edible  ones  at  hand, — the  caprifig 
trees  in  this  instance  being  grown  some  dis- 
tance from  the  edible  ones, — and  the  result  is 
that  the  pollination  is  complete,  the  wasp  has 
done  its  work,  commerce  has  been'  aided,  man 
has  been  given  a  toothsome  and  healthful  food. 
The  wasp  has  been  given  a  name  of  formidable 

135 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

proportion,  Blastophaga  grossarum,  but  it  goes 
on  about  its  appointed  mission  just  as  nimbly 
as  though  it  had  no  such  burden  to  bear. 

Under  the  stimulus  of  all  the  activity  of  the 
New  Earth,  which  apparently  pervades  all  mod- 
ern effort,  the  fig  was  not  left  to  its  miserable 
estate  in  the  country  of  its  adoption.  Every- 
thing in  the  New  World  was  in  its  favor,  cli- 
mate, soil,  demand.  So  the  fig- wasp  was  induced 
to  come  to  this  country,  the  edible  figs  were 
pollinated,  and  the  same  transformation  that 
has  all  the  centuries  annually  taken  place  in  the 
home  of  the  fig,  in  distant  Asia  Minor,  now  is 
wrought  in  America.  While  in  1891  the  cured 
fig  output  of  California,  where  very  largely  the 
fig  is  grown,  was  only  three  hundred  and  sixty 
thousand  pounds,  it  has  now  increased  to  from 
five  to  seven  millions  of  pounds  per  year,  and 
the  character  of  the  product  is  pronounced 
superior  to  the  Oriental  fig  both  by  analysis 
and  by  the  test  of  expert  opinion,  while  the 
domestic  fig  is  far  more  desirable  from  the 
important  standpoint  of  cleanliness. 

Before  considering  the  question  of  horticul- 
ture in  smaller  lines,  it  may  be  of  interest  to 
note  as  a  suggestion  of  the  really  wonderful 

136 


HORTICULTURAL   PROGRESS 

growth  of  the  fruit  industry  of  recent  years, 
that  while  California  leads  in  fruit  production, 
the  value  of  the  product  by  the  last  census, 
being  $28,280,104,  or  21.5  per  cent  of  the 
whole,  New  York  produced  in  the  same  year 
fruit  to  the  amount  of  $15,844,346;  Pennsyl- 
vania, $9,884,  809;  Ohio,  $8,901,220;  Michigan, 
$5,859,362,  these  five  states  producing  52.3  per 
cent  of  all  fruit  raised  in  the  United  States. 
In  the  decennial  period  referred  to  above, 
1890-1900,  the  greatest  relative  increase  was 
in  plums,  334  per  cent ;  pears  following  at  246 
per  cent;  apples,  68  per  cent. 

Along  with  this  rapid  development  of  com- 
mercial horticulture  has  come  a  marked  revival 
of  and  expansion  of  interest  in  intensive  horti- 
culture. Here  lies  marked  opportunity  for  the 
man  who  raises  fruits  partly  because  he  wishes 
them  fresh  for  his  own  table,  but  more  because 
he  has  fallen  in  love  with  the  occupation  itself. 
The  revival  of  interest  in  outdoor  life  in  the 
past  generation  in  America  has  no  doubt  had 
an  important  bearing  or  individual  fruit-grow- 
ing on  a  small  scale.  It  not  only  provides 
means  for  considerable  increase  in  revenue 
through  direct  sales  and,  indirectly,  through 

137 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

supplying  the  home  table,  but  it  affords  op- 
portunity for  most  fascinating  experiences, 
vastly  increases  knowledge  and  love  of  nature, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  is  of  marked  value  as 
an  aid  to  health.  It  is  quite  remarkable,  too, 
when  one  comes  to  consider  it,  how  much  may 
be  accomplished  in  fruit-raising  in  close  quar- 
ters. One  may  see  something  of  this  in  the  re- 
markable cleverness  of  the  French  orchardists 
in  the  training  of  pear  trees  to  grow  flat  upon 
walls  or  trellises,  thus  materially  economizing 
space.  In  the  cramped  back  yard  of  a  city 
house  in  San  Francisco  a  lover  of  fruits  has 
over  seventy  different  varieties  of  pears, 
peaches,  grapes,  quinces  and  cherries  growing 
in  rich  profusion  and  yielding  abundantly  of 
luscious  fruit. 

Mr.  L.  C.  Corbett,  horticulturist  of  the 
Bureau  of  Plant  Industry  in  Washington,  in  a 
contribution  to  the  Year  Book  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture  lays  out  a  plan  for  an 
orchard  in  a  space  of  ground  sixty  by  eighty 
feet  in  size.  This  comparatively  small  space 
will  accommodate  four  hundred  and  seventy- 
two  fruit  bearing  plants,  arranged  as  follows : 
Thirty-two  grape-vines  dispersed  at  intervals 

138 


HORTICULTURAL   PROGRESS 

of  ten  feet  around  the  entire  garden ;  three  rows 
each  containing  six  dwarf  pear  trees,  eighteen 
specimens  in  all;  six  species  each  of  peaches, 
dwarf  apples,  cherries  and  plums;  twenty 
blackberry  specimens;  forty  blackcaps;  forty 
red  raspberries ;  three  hundred  strawberries. 

Not  only  is  there  opportunity  even  in 
cramped  quarters  for  the  successful  growing  of 
fruits,  but  there  is  also  a  still  more  interesting 
and,  possibly,  profitable  allied  line,  the  breed- 
ing of  new  fruits  by  cross-fertilization  and 
selection.  Whoever  is  able  to  produce  a  new 
type  of  fruit  or  so  to  enhance  the  value  of  an 
old  one  that  it  will  supplant  existing  ones,  not 
only  performs  an  act  of  surpassing  interest  to 
himself  and  friends,  not  only  derives  a  snug 
sum  from  the  sale  of  the  new  fruit,  if  he  so 
desires,  for  wider  introduction  by  some  noted 
nurseryman,  but  adds  markedly  to  the  pleasure 
and  the  welfare  of  the  race.  It  may  be, 
indeed,  that  large  wealth  may  accrue  to  the 
nation  and  the  world  through  this  addition  to 
its  food  forces.  Marked  impetus  has  been 
given  to  this  in  recent  days  through  the  fasci- 
nating work  of  the  great  plant-breeder,  Luther 
Burbank,  who,  using  such  methods  and  such 

139 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

implements  as  are  ready  at  the  hand  of  any 
one  interested,  has  not  only  added  enormously 
to  the  wealth  of  nations  but  opened  the  way 
to  an  indefinite  expansion  of  his  work  on  the 
part  of  others.  Fruit-breeding  offers  to  the 
amateur  horticulturist  opportunities  rich  in 
possibilities. 

But  not  only  has  modern  horticulture,  the 
horticulture  of  the  New  Earth  in  America  par- 
ticularly, shown  rapid  development  in  the  way 
of  increased  tree  and  vine  planting,  and  not 
only  has  individual  interest  heightened,  both 
in  production  and  in  the  breeding  of  new 
types,  but  the  fruit-growers  of  the  United 
States  have  steadily  looked  beyond  the  bor- 
ders of  their  own  country  in  their  search  for 
a  market  for  their  canned  and  dried  goods, 
and,  in  lesser  measure,  due  to  the  time  con- 
sumed in  long  shipments,  markets  for  fresh 
fruit.  In  1870  the  export  of  fruits  "preserved 
in  cans  or  otherwise"  from  the  United  States 
to  foreign  countries  amounted  in  value  to 
$81,735.  Slowly,  as  the  increase  in  the  area  of 
fruit  grown  in  the  country  enlarged  in  this 
generation,  the  export  trade  has  increased. 
Ten  years  later,  in  1880,  the  value  of  export 

140 


HORTICULTURAL   PROGRESS 

canned  fruits  had  advanced  to  $371,118.50. 
Ten  years  more,  and  it  was  over  six  hundred 
thousand  dollars.  In  the  next  decade  the 
foreign  trade  in  fruits  increased  in  a  still  more 
significant  manner,  and  in  1904  we  exported 
to  the  amount  of  $2,677,002.  The  increase  in 
the  export  of  canned  fruits  and  vegetables  in 
the  decade  from  1890  to  1900  was  350.4  per 
cent.  The  dried  fruit  industry  during  the 
period  of  the  New  Earth  has  had  remarkable 
growth.  In  1895,  when  fruit-drying  for  home 
and  foreign  markets  was  becoming  popular, 
we  exported  about  fourteen  millions  of  pounds 
of  prunes,  but  in  1904  over  seventy-three 
millions  of  pounds.  Almost  sixteen  millions 
of  pounds  of  raisins  were  imported  in  1895  as 
against  6,800,000  pounds  in  1904,  while,  along 
with  this  import  raisin  trade  under  the  im- 
petus that  has  been  given  to  American  raisin 
production,  has  developed  an  export  trade  in 
raisins  amounting  now  to  nearly  three  hundred 
thousand  dollars  annually.  The  amount  of  the 
dried  apples  exported  from  the  United  States 
in  1895  was  a  trifle  over  seven  million  pounds ; 
in  1904  it  was  nearly  fifty  million  pounds.  A 
generation  ago,  in  1870,  the  total  value  of  all 

141 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

fruits  and  nuts  exported  was  about  five  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars,  while,  in  1904,  this  had 
risen  to  over  twenty  million,  five  hundred 
thousand  dollars. 

In  1870  we  produced  fruits  to  the  value  of 
$5,425,677;  in  1880,  it  had  increased  to  $17,- 
549,576;  in  1890,  $29,862,416;  in  1900,  $56,- 
668,313,  while  the  increase  during  the  present 
decade  promises  to  be  even  larger.  There 
were  only  ninety-seven  establishments  for  can- 
ning and  preserving  fruits  in  the  United  States 
in  1870,  while  in  1905  there  were  over  two 
thousand. 

These  figures  will  suggest  the  advancement 
in  fruit  culture  during  this  period  from  a  com- 
mercial point  of  view.  It  is  quite  as  significant 
an  advance  as  that  shown  in  individual  interest 
in  this  most  delightful  occupation.  With  a 
steadily  increasing  demand,  home  and  foreign, 
and  with  a  steady  widening  of  the  zone  of 
culture,  the  fruit  industry,  large  as  has  been 
its  progress  during  the  generation,  appears  but 
at  its  real  beginning. 


CHAPTER    X 

MODERN    FORESTRY 

ni^WO  things  stand  out  with  peculiar  clear- 
-*•  ness  in  the  recollections  of  a  long  jour- 
ney from  the  island  of  Gotland  in  the  lower 
Baltic,  a  thousand  miles  or  more  to  the  north, 
beyond  the  arctic  circle,  in  Sweden, — one  of 
them  the  use  of  the  elm  trees  in  the  country 
places  of  the  quaint  island  to  the  south,  as 
a  source  of  food  supply  for  the  cattle,  by  trim- 
ming the  trees  of  their  young  leaves  and 
sprouts,  in  the  early  summer,  to  be  stored 
away  for  winter  feeding  for  the  sheep  and  cat- 
tle. The  other  was  the  great  stretches  of  pine 
through  which  we  passed  on  the  day  ride  by 
the  government  railroad  north  from  Stock- 
holm, where  the  road  winds  in  and  out  among 
the  mountains  through  a  most  picturesque 
region,  the  Switzerland  of  northern  Europe. 
Very  much  of  the  pine  of  the  Swedish  forests 
has  been  preserved  simply  by  means  of  the 
same  sort  of  pressure  that  is  now  brought  to 

143 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

bear  in  the  United  States.  The  forests,  largely 
owned  by  stock  companies  and  individuals, 
were  rapidly  going  the  way  of  destruction, 
despite  the  centuries  of  testimony  on  the  part 
of  Germany,  to  the  south,  that  it  pays  to  pre- 
serve the  forests  and  harvest  them,  and  the 
work  of  preservation  and  protection  was  begun 
by  the  government  just  in  time.  Sweden 
now  has  her  national  school  of  forestry,  and 
is  abreast  with  modern  progress  in  preserving 
and  extending  her  forests. 

While  much  has  been  done  within  a  genera- 
tion, in  our  own  country,  by  way  of  educa- 
tion, to  show  those  most  immediately  con- 
cerned, the  lumbermen,  and  those  most  vitally 
concerned,  the  people,  that  it  pays  to  keep 
faith  with  Nature  in  her  forests  no  less  than 
in  her  soils  and  their  products,  yet  much 
remains  to  be  done.  We  shall  find,  however, 
that  it  is  only  since  these  years  of  the  awaken- 
ing of  the  New  Earth  that  real  practical,  tell- 
ing work  has  been  done.  In  the  generation  of 
the  New  Earth's  most  rapid  growth,  forestry 
in  America  has  been  born,  or,  a  better  figure, 
has  been  galvanized  into  life.  Sporadic,  though 
most  earnest  attempts  were  made,  all  through 

144 


MODERN  FORESTRY 

the  earlier  and  middle  portion  of  the  century 
just  closed,  to  arouse  interest  in  forest  preserva- 
tion, but  it  was  not  until  1876  that  anything 
like  effective  national  steps  were  taken,  and 
not  until  1881  that  the  present  Bureau  of  For- 
estry was  established.  The  work  of  this  Bureau 
became  greatly  widened  and  enhanced  in 
importance  through  the  transference,  in  1905, 
of  the  management  of  the  forest  reserves  from 
the  land  office  of  the  Department  of  the 
Interior  to  the  Forest  Service, — a  sensible  and 
logical  act.  In  1898,  Mr.  Gifford  Pinchot  was 
appointed  forester,  an  admirable  selection.  To 
him  great  credit  is  due  for  the  progress  of 
American  forestry. 

Sixty-three  millions,  three  hundred  thousand 
acres  of  forest  thus  came  under  the  care  of  the 
Bureau  of  Forestry,  and  upon  this  large,  but 
still  all  too  inadequate  tract,  practical  problems 
of  forestry  are  being  solved  upon  a  large  scale. 
How  to  conserve  these  forests ;  how  to  harvest 
out  the  merchantable  timber  and  provide  for 
regular  harvests  through  coming  decades  and 
centuries;  how  to  help  those  who  need  for- 
estry service  to  the  best  possible  advantage,  so 
that  their  timber-lands  may  be  continuously 

145 


THE   NEW  EARTH 

productive;  how  best  to  train  that  increas- 
ingly large  number  of  young  men  who  are 
leaving  college  life  for  the  calling, — indeed,  one 
might  almost  say,  the  profession,  of  forestry; 
how  to  do  all  the  detail  work  of  valuation, 
forest  measurement,  record -making,  and  the 
like;  how  to  create  forests  where  none  now 
exist, — these  and  many  another  question  are 
coming  up  in  these  days  of  the  New  Earth 
for  settlement.  Under  the  wise  administration 
of  affairs,  these  questions  are  being  settled  for 
the  practical  good  of  the  present  and  the 
future  as  well;  for,  after  all,  the  forester  is 
largely  the  man  of  tomorrow.  Today  in  for- 
estry is  important ;  tomorrow  is  all-important. 
Before  this  service  stretches  unlimited  op- 
portunity in  the  one  particular  of  reforesting 
the  denuded  areas.  I  recall  a  ride  one  late 
winter  day  through  a  great  pine  forest  in  a 
northwestern  state  where,  as  yet,  no  axe  had 
struck  a  blow.  It  was  a  magnificent  primeval 
forest,  with  splendid  opportunities  for  har- 
vesting the  trees  that  were  large  enough  for 
the  mills,  and  for  nourishing  the  younger 
pines  that  were  coming  up  in  the  open  swales 
and  crowding  even  their  nobler  brethren  in  the 

146 


MODERN  FORESTRY 

depths  of  the  forest  itself.  There  was  need 
of  the  axe  and  saw,  for  the  forest  had  long 
been  ripe  for  the  harvest.  Indeed,  it  was  plain 
that  the  trees  now  growing  would  have  been 
much  larger,  and  in  all  ways  better,  if  in  some 
past  day  approved  forestry  methods  had  been 
in  vogue. 

A  few  years  later  I  had  occasion  to  pass 
through  the  same  region.  The  whole  wretched 
tale  of  greed  and  wastage  lay  before  me. 
Where  the  noble  forest  had  stood  was  only  a 
long  reach  of  barren  land,  swept  by  fires — a 
blackened  dismal  waste  of  death.  The  land 
was  absolutely  non-agricultural.  It  was  unfit- 
ted for  agriculture,  both  by  climate  and  soil, 
it  was  preeminently  and  absolutely  forest  land 
alone.  Not  a  tree  had  been  left  standing.  Even 
the  little  ones,  barely  more  than  saplings,  had 
been  cut  away  in  the  ravenous  desire  to  strip 
the  earth.  Not  the  slightest  effort  had  been 
made  to  reforest  the  region,  much  less  to  leave 
standing  the  unmerchantable  timber.  All  the 
conditions  most  admirably  favored  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  forest,  and,  if  ordinary  common 
sense  and  an  ordinary  regard  for  the  future 
had  been  consulted,  the  forest  would  have 

147 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

been  good  for  a  thousand  years.  It  was  a  most 
pitiable  exhibition  of  greed:  more  than  that, 
it  was  a  distressing  commentary  on  the  busi- 
ness sense  of  the  men  who  stripped  it;  for 
the  region  could  have  been  made  a  source  of 
perpetual  profit  instead  of  an  utter  loss,  by 
simply  following  the  lead  of  ordinary  com- 
mon sense. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  American  Forest  Con- 
gress which  convened  in  the  city  of  Washing- 
ton in  January,  1905,  President  Roosevelt,  in 
addressing  the  congress,  spoke  these  words, — 
at  an  earlier  date,  before  the  beginnings  of  the 
generation  of  the  New  Earth,  they  would  have 
been  fit  words  for  laughter  or  ill-concealed 
anger  on  the  part  of  the  men  who  in  that  day 
were  ravaging  the  forests: 

"You  have  made,  by  your  coming  to  this 
congress,  a  meeting  which  is  without  parallel 
in  the  history  of  forestry.  For  the  first  time 
the  great  business  and  the  forest  interest  of  the 
nation  have  joined  together,  through  delegates 
altogether  worthy  of  the  organizations  they 
represent,  to  consider  their  individual  and  their 
common  interests  in  the  forest.  .  .  .  You  all 
know,  and  especially  those  of  you  from  the 

148 


Date-palm  tree,   6i   years  old,   at  Tucson.     It  was  grown   from  a 
sucker.    It  is  hearing  its  third  crop  of  fruit,  uhout  100  pounds 


MODERN  FORESTRY 

West,  the  individual  whose  idea  of  developing 
the  country  is  to  cut  every  stick  of  timber  off 
of  it,  and  then  leave  a  barren  desert  for  the 
homemaker  who  comes  after  him.  That  man 
is  a  curse,  and  not  a  blessing,  to  the  country. 
.  .  .  When  wood,  dead  or  alive,  is  demanded 
in  so  many  ways,  and  when  this  demand  will 
undoubtedly  increase,  it  is  a  fair  question,  then, 
whether  the  vast  demands  of  the  future  upon 
our  forests  are  likely  to  be  met.  You  are 
mighty  poor  Americans  if  your  care  for  the 
well-being  of  this  country  is  limited  to  hoping 
that  that  well-being  will  last  out  your  own 
generation.  No  man  here  or  elsewhere  is  en- 
titled to  call  himself  a  decent  citizen  if  he  does 
not  try  to  do  his  part  toward  seeing  that  our 
national  policies  are  shaped  for  the  advantage 
of  our  children  and  our  children's  children.  Our 
country,  we  have  faith  to  believe,  is  only  at  the 
beginning  of  its  growth.  Unless  the  forests  of 
the  United  States  can  be  made  ready  to  meet 
the  vast  demands  which  this  growth  will  inev- 
itably bring,  commercial  disaster,  that  means 
disaster  to  the  whole  country,  is  inevitable. 
...  If  the  present  rate  of  forest  destruction 
is  allowed  to  continue,  with  nothing  to  offset 

149 


THE    NEW  EARTH 

it,  a  timber  famine  in  the  future  is  inevitable. 
Fire,  wasteful  and  destructive  forms  of  lum- 
bering, and  the  legitimate  use,  taken  together, 
are  destroying  our  forest  resources  far  more 
rapidly  than  they  are  being  replaced.  It  is 
difficult  to  imagine  what  such  a  timber  famine 
would  mean  to  our  resources.  And  the  period 
of  recovery  from  the  injuries  which  a  timber 
famine  would  entail  would  be  measured  by  the 
slow  growth  of  the  trees  themselves." 

While  all  indications  point  to  a  gradual 
national  extension  of  the  views  of  the  Presi- 
dent, resulting  in  checking  forest  destruction 
before  it  is  too  late,  the  work  of  the  individual 
states  in  the  period  of  the  New  Earth  has  itself 
been  significant.  Steps  are  being  taken  in 
many  states  to  protect  the  forests  from  fire,  to 
provide  reserves,  and  to  take  advantage  of  the 
example  of  other  countries  in  reforesting  cut- 
over  areas ;  but  perhaps  the  most  interesting  of 
all  the  developments  is  the  creation  of  forests 
in  states  where  thay  have  not  before  existed. 
I  do  not  know  that  this  can  better  be  illus- 
trated than  by  selecting  the  state  of  Kansas  as 
an  example  of  what  is  being  accomplished,  a 
prairie  state  beset  with  heavy  winds,  needing 

150 


MODERN  FORESTRY 

the  protection  of  forest  windbreaks  and  far 
removed  from  the  timbered  regions. 

It  was  thirty- three  years  ago,  in  1872, — a  date 
which  may  not  arbitrarily  be  chosen  as  the 
beginning  of  New  Earth  activities,  as  they 
lap  over  and  interweave  from  past  days,  but 
which,  nevertheless,  fairly  well  indicates  the 
beginnings  of  the  new  order, — that  the  experi- 
ment station  of  the  Kansas  State  Agricultural 
College  began  the  planting  of  forest  trees.  It 
was  one  of  the  first  experiments  of  the  station, 
though  many  species  had  been  planted  and 
propagated  before.  The  experiment,  as  it  has 
developed  through  the  generation,  has  been  rich 
in  results.  Many  kinds  of  trees  were  planted, 
some  of  them  with  good  promise  of  success, 
others  essentially  tentative.  Land  was  selected 
least  adapted  to  ordinary  agriculture,  high, 
gravelly  and  broken  ridges,  the  object  being 
to  show  the  peculiar  adaptability  of  trees 
to  regions  not  needed  for  agriculture  proper. 
Naturally,  the  growth  was  not  so  rapid  nor  so 
vigorous  as  it  would  have  been  on  lower  and 
richer  soil,  but  the  station  authorities  showed 
the  soundness  of  their  knowledge  in  making 
such  choice. 

151 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

European  larch,  white  ash,  red  ash,  green  ash, 
Osage  orange,  catalpa,  ailanthus,  black  walnut, 
white  hickory,  soft  maple  and  willow  were  first 
selected.  Some  of  the  trees  were  not  success- 
ful, notably  the  European  larch,  but  the  others 
pressed  slowly  forward.  Later  came  other 
trees,  Norway  maple,  box -elder,  hard  maple, 
honey  locust,  coffee  bean,  Russian  mulberry, 
cottonwood,  Lombardy  poplar,  silver  poplar, 
hackberry,  plane  tree  and  the  sturdy  oaks,— 
red,  black,  bur,  pin,  shingle,  yellow  chestnut, 
swamp  white  oak  and  English  oak  among 
them.  Then  came  the  conifers,  and  here  was 
shown  one  of  the  wisest  steps  in  all  the  work. 
The  station  authorities  held  that  "whether 
studied  from  the  standpoint  of  the  landscape 
artist,  of  the  promoter  who  wishes  to  improve 
property  for  the  increase  in  value,  or  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  stock-feeder  who  realizes  that 
windbreaks  save  corn,  and  corn  is  money,  the 
evergreens  are  to  be  considered  as  among  the 
most  beautiful  and  useful  trees."  Austrian  and 
Scotch  pine,  white,  pitch  and  Table  mountain 
pines,  cedars  and  spruces  were  the  principal 
cone-bearing  trees  planted. 

The  success  of  the  planting  of  these  forest 

152 


MODERN    FORESTRY 

trees  has  been  pronounced.  Some  of  the  pines 
have  reached  a  height  of  over  forty  feet,  being 
over  a  foot  in  diameter  at  the  ground  and  from 
six  to  eight  inches  at  six  feet  from  the  ground, 
while  other  trees  have  had  equally  satisfactory 
results.  It  has  been  demonstrated  that  even 
in  a  prairie  state,  far  removed  from  mountain 
regions,  the  pines  and  other  trees  which  we 
naturally  associate  with  those  regions  may  be 
raised  at  such  a  rate  of  growth  as  to  make 
them  profitable  for  lumber;  while  trees  for 
mere  ornament,  for  windbreak  or  fuel  also 
make  comparatively  rapid  and  wholly  satisfac- 
tory growth.  Here,  as  in  the  work  of  the 
national  government  in  preserving  and  extend- 
ing the  great  standing  forests,  it  is  the  future 
that  must  be  looked  to.  The  farmer  of  the 
New  Earth  who  today  begins  the  planting  of 
trees  upon  his  Kansas  farm,  in  line  with  the 
information  he  may  obtain  free  of  cost  from 
his  state  experiment  station,  through  bulletins 
issued  from  time  to  time  as  the  work  has  pro- 
gressed, may  not  only  live  to  reap  handsomely 
himself  from  the  tree  harvesting,  but  he  may 
be  assured  that  all  the  generations  following 
him  will  stand  grateful  debtors  to  him. 

153 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

And  so  it  is  going  throughout  the  other 
states, — everywhere  these  beginnings  of  forests, 
following  the  splendid  stimulations  of  the 
scientific  men  of  the  New  Earth,  who  have  so 
unselfishly  been  at  work  to  spread  among  the 
people  what  may  be  termed  practical  knowl- 
edge, as  distinguished  from  that  which  is  emi- 
nently true  and  sound,  but  is  not  so  arranged, 
digested  and  set  forth  as  to  be  of  real  help  to 
the  people. 

In  addition  to  its  own  individual  work,  the 
Kansas  Station  has  worked  in  cooperation  with 
the  Bureau  of  Plant  Industry  of  the  national 
government,  both  in  planting  trees  and  in 
testing  tree  seeds;  the  state,  as  well  as  the 
nation,  thus  reaping  doubly  from  the  experi- 
ments. Here  all  manner  of  problems  incident 
to  making  prairie  forests  are  worked  out.  The 
results  are  of  marked  aid  to  the  service. 

Kansas  has  been  visited  by  disastrous  floods, 
and  forestry  is  being  called  into  play  to  pre- 
vent them.  In  France,  a  century  ago,  forestry 
came  to  the  aid  of  the  people  in  a  somewhat 
similar  way.  Along  the  French  coasts,  for 
centuries,  the  sand  had  been  encroaching  upon 
the  fertile  regions,  converting  them  into  a 

154 


MODERN    FORESTRY 

desert.  "It  was,"  in  the  words  of  Ambassador 
Jusserand  of  that  country,  at  the  meeting  at 
which  the  President  made  the  remarks  quoted 
above,  "like  a  death  powder  covering  our 
land."  Trees  were  set  out  to  check  the  en- 
croachment of  the  sands,  and  the  country  was 
reclaimed.  So  in  Kansas,  the  plan  of  tree- 
planting  along  the  sandy  banks  of  streams  that 
in  high  water  overflow  their  boundaries  is 
being  followed,  and  the  needed  information  is 
circulated  among  the  farmers  in  the  flood 
regions  through  the  bulletins  of  the  state 
experiment  station.  The  cottonwood  tree,  a 
tree  of  very  rapid  growth,  seems  peculiarly 
suited  for  flood  prevention.  A  thicket  of  cot- 
tonwood trees  along  the  banks  of  the  Kansas 
River  grew  so  rapidly  that,  in  twenty  years, 
some  of  the  largest  measured  over  one  hundred 
feet  in  height,  two  feet  in  diameter  at  the 
ground  and  a  foot  and  a  half  in  diameter 
twenty  feet  above  ground.  The  average  trees 
were  seventy -five  feet  in  height.  Not  only 
may  these  trees  form  a  protection  against 
floods,  but,  when  harvested  properly,  afford  a 
considerable  revenue ;  for,  though  soft  of  tex- 
ture, such  wood  is  growing  steadily  in  demand 

155 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

for  packing-cases  and  barrels.  The  average 
price  paid  by  dealers  for  this  wood,  for  selected 
stock,  is  twenty-two  dollars  per  thousand  feet ; 
while,  for  fuel,  the  cottonwood  is  worth  three 
dollars  per  cord  when  oak  is  worth  five  dollars. 

The  flood  land  is  generally  so  low  that  the 
roots  of  the  trees  find  abundant  moisture,  and 
all  the  conditions  are  favorable  to  an  ultimate 
and  complete  water  or  flood  check.  The  banks 
once  held  in  place,  the  water  keeps  its  course, 
and  the  surrounding  country  is  saved.  In  a 
single  year,  in  1903,  in  the  Kansas  region  of 
the  West,  more  than  two  million  acres  of  land 
were  covered  with  water,  property  was  de- 
stroyed approximating  forty  million  dollars  in 
value,  and  nearly  one  hundred  lives  were  lost. 
Not  only  were  crops  destroyed  and  vast  dam- 
age wrought,  but  many  fields  had  to  be  per- 
manently abandoned  on  account  of  the  washing 
away  of  their  soil;  while  fertile  fields  on  the 
lower  lands  were  completely  destroyed  by  the 
deposit  of  white  sand  from  the  floods,  cover- 
ing the  land  from  a  few  inches  to  several  feet 
in  depth. 

In  addition  to  the  value  of  the  trees  in  pre- 
venting escape  of  water,  they  serve  to  break 

156 


When  the  plums  are  ripe  in  California 


MODERN    FORESTRY 

the  wind  ;  and  this  is  a  most  important  factor, 
as  the  particles  of  rich  organic  matter  in  the 
sandy  soils  are,  when  dry,  so  light  that  heavy 
and  constant  winds  blow  them  out  of  the  soil 
and  reduce  its  fertility. 

Individual  states,  for  the  most  part,  have 
been  lamentably  slow  in  taking  up  the  impor- 
tant work  of  forestry.  An  unwritten  law  has 
prevailed,  one  would  think,  providing  that  the 
forest  must  first  be  destroyed  before  any  steps 
at  preservation  could  be  made.  The  frontiers- 
man, opening  up  a  new  forest  region,  has 
seemed  to  have  no  conception  of  the  value 
of  the  forest,  and  the  greed  of  the  timbermen 
has  swiftly  destroyed  what  the  frontiersman 
left.  Gifford  Pinchot,  in  a  bulletin  issued  by 
the  government,  calls  attention  to  the  fact 
that  the  early  English  settlers  of  America  had 
been  accustomed  to  a  country  where  timber 
was  already  scarce,  and  where  the  penalties 
for  its  destruction  were  severe  and  rigidly 
enforced.  This  bred  a  regard  for  the  forest 
which  later  generations  have  not  known. 

In  Nebraska,  early  in  the  period  of  the  New 
Earth,  Arbor  Day  was  instituted  by  the  Hon. 
J.  Sterling  Morton,  later  Secretary  of  Agri- 

157 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

culture.  The  chief  feature  of  the  day,  the 
planting  of  trees  by  school  children  on  a  date 
fixed  by  the  governor  of  the  state,  has  had  an 
important  educational  bearing.  Provisions  for 
the  observance  of  Arbor  Day  have  now  been 
made  in  every  state  and  territory. 

In  order  to  provide  definite  and  recent 
information  as  to  the  efforts  now  being  made 
in  various  states  to  preserve  the  forests,  letters 
were  addressed  to  the  governors  of  a  number 
of  the  states,  and  from  their  replies,  or  from 
replies  prepared  by  departments  of  forestry, 
the  following  re'sum^  of  the  situation  in  these 
states  is  made: 

Colorado,  as  a  state,  has  done  little  but  pass 
laws.  It  has  no  machinery  for  their  enforce- 
ment, no  state  forester,  no  office  charged  with 
responsibility  relating  to  forests,  no  forest  pol- 
icy. The  state  experiment  station  has  begun  a 
series  of  cooperative  experiments  in  tree-plant- 
ing with  landowners  in  various  parts  of  the 
state.  The  national  government  has  established 
forest  reserves  to  the  extent  of  nearly  thirteen 
million  acres,  with  three  forest  nurseries  and  a 
fourth  soon  to  follow.  Twenty  thousand  young 
pines  were  planted  in  1905,  with  very  satisfac- 

158 


MODERN    FORESTRY 

tory  results.  A  school  of  forestry  has  been 
established  by  private  aid,  embracing  fifteen 
thousand  acres  of  land  known  as  Manitou  Park, 
some  sixty  miles  from  the  city  of  Denver, 
while  the  state  agricultural  college  adds  a 
course  in  forestry  in  1906.  The  following  sug- 
gestive words  are  from  a  leaflet  issued  by  the 
Colorado  State  Forestry  Association,  an  organ- 
ization in  the  interests  of  forest  preservation: 
"  On  coming  to  Colorado,  the  first  settlers 
found  not  less  than  thirty -six  thousand  square 
miles  of  forest  area,  much  of  which  was  heavily 
wooded  with  various  kinds  of  valuable  pines 
and  spruces,  the  heritage  of  centuries,  waiting 
for  the  miner,  the  farmer  and  the  builder  of 
cities,  with  promise  of  timber  in  plenty  for 
generations  to  come.  For  many  years  no  for- 
estry laws  were  enacted.  The  woods  were  free 
for  all,  and  at  once  became  the  prey  of  insatiable 
avarice  and  waste.  By  fire  and  wanton  waste, 
thirty  thousand  square  miles  of  virgin  forests 
of  the  state  have  been  destroyed,  so  experts 
say.  If  true,  the  enormity  is  unparalleled ;  for 
under  no  sky,  in  any  land,  by  any  people,  civ- 
ilized, or  uncivilized,  was  there  ever  so  much 
forest  waste  by  a  like  number  of  inhabitants  in 

159 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

so  short  a  time.  As  a  result  of  denudation,  the 
snow  melts  early,  the  streams  are  impaired,  the 
summer  flow  is  lessened,  farming  is  made  more 
precarious,  and  water  famines  at  times  are 
threatened.  Where  deforestation  is  most  ex- 
tensive, the  streams  show  the  greatest  degree 
of  disturbance.  All  streams  on  the  eastern 
slope  are  impaired,  particularly  Boulder,  Clear 
Creek,  Platte  River  and  the  Arkansas  River. 
Beyond  the  range  the  same  condition  is  rapidly 
obtaining, — the  Dolores,  San  Juan  and  Uncom- 
pahgre  in  a  marked  degree.  Even  the  Gunnison 
and  Grand  are  beginning  to  show  the  effects 
of  deforestation.  To  every  thoughtful  mind  it 
must  be  apparent  that  we  are  coming  face  to 
face  with  an  alarming  situation,  demanding 
immediate  and  energetic  action." 

Nebraska  has  no  laws  for  the  purpose  of 
conserving  the  interests  of  forestry.  It  has  an 
Arbor  Day,  but  the  observance  of  this  day  is 
not  compulsory,  although  it  is  strongly  urged 
by  precedent  and  gubernatorial  proclamation. 
This  is  a  prairie  state  possessing  but  little  nat- 
ural timber.  However,  the  settlers  have  been 
very  zealous  in  the  matter  of  planting  trees, 
and  in  the  eastern  half  of  the  state  nearly  every 

160 


MODERN    FORESTRY 

farm  has  its  grove  and  suitable  shade  trees. 
The  state  is  gaining  in  the  matter  of  the  num- 
ber of  acres  devoted  to  tree -growing,  rather 
than  losing.  In  many  parts  of  the  state  small 
groves  are  so  numerous  as  to  give  the  country 
an  appearance  of  possessing  much  timber  re- 
source. There  is  no  state  in  the  Union  in 
which  Arbor  Day  is  more  faithfully  observed 
than  in  this  state.  Thousands  of  trees  are 
planted  every  year  upon  that  day;  but,  of 
course,  tree-planting  is  in  no  sense  confined  to 
that  particular  day.  The  people  of  Nebraska 
believe  that  an  increase  of  forest  growth  has  a 
direct  influence  upon  climatic  conditions,  and 
hence  the  idea  of  tree-planting  has  been  stim- 
ulated. Portions  of  the  state  are  semi-arid,  and 
if  there  is  anything  in  the  theory  that  tree- 
growth  is  an  important  factor  in  increasing 
humidity,  that  of  itself  is  sufficient  stimulus 
to  promote  the  general  planting  of  trees. 

The  General  Assembly  of  Illinois,  at  its  last 
(1905)  session,  enacted  a  law  for  the  creation  of 
forest  preserve  districts.  The  act  contains  a 
referendum  to  the  people  of  any  county  or 
counties  in  the  state  desiring  to  organize  a  for- 
est-preserve district  under  its  provisions.  For 

161 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

any  district  so  organized,  six  commissioners  are 
to  be  appointed  by  the  Governor  of  the  state, 
whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  administer  the  forest 
preserve  law;  and,  in  pursuance  of  this  duty, 
the  commissioners  are  empowered  to  designate 
by  ordinance,  streets,  roads,  avenues,  boulevards 
and  highways  as  public  driveways,  and  may 
restrain  and  control  the  speed  of  travel  on  such 
highways  and  throughout  such  forest  preserves. 
Comparatively  little  attention  has  been  paid  in 
the  past  either  to  the  preservation  or  regenera- 
tion of  forests  in  Illinois.  A  very  considerable 
number  of  individuals  have  planted  groves 
varying  from  one  to  several  acres  in  extent, 
and  some  of  these  have  succeeded  well.  In  the 
aggregate,  a  very  large  number  of  trees  have 
been  planted  since  the  settlement  of  the  state 
began,  but  these  have  been  mostly  in  shelter 
belts  and  in  small  areas  upon  farms,  as  well  as 
along  streets  in  the  cities  and  the  waysides 
throughout  the  country.  The  region  of  the 
state  which  was  originally  prairie  proved  to  be 
well  adapted  to  tree -growth,  but  since  this 
land  is  desirable  for  agricultural  purposes,  no 
forest  planting  has  been  done.  The  Illinois 
Central  Railroad  has  made  some  rather  exten- 

162 


MODERN    FORESTRY 

sive  plantings  of  the  hardy  catalpa  for  the  pur- 
pose of  procuring  railroad  ties.  These  were 
begun  some  eight  or  ten  years  ago  and  are 
doing  as  well  as  could  be  reasonably  expected. 
Most  of  these  catalpa  groves,  however,  have 
been  too  closely  planted  for  best  results,  as  is 
very  evident  now.  In  the  future  these  trees 
will  not  be  planted  nearer  than  eight  by  eight 
feet.  Even  then  thinnings  will  have  to  be 
made  in  the  somewhat  early  history  of  the 
plantation.  Considerable  European  larch  was 
planted  twenty  or  thirty  years  ago,  and  there 
are  now  several  very  fine  groves  of  it,  though 
small  in  size.  The  black  walnut,  too,  was  simi- 
larly planted  years  ago,  but  here,  again,  the 
trees  were  set  too  near  together  and  the  devel- 
opment has  been  much  slower  than  anticipated. 
This  tree  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  come  into 
a  marketable  condition  in  any  of  these  plant- 
ings. It  is  especially  valuable  only  after  it 
reaches  a  large  size.  The  black  walnut  grows 
well  enough  in  any  situation  in  Illinois,  and  is 
esteemed  exceedingly  valuable  for  posts  and 
railroad  ties ;  but  on  the  rich  black  loams,  orig- 
inally prairie,  the  trunk-boring  insects  destroy 
it,  while  upon  the  drier  clayey  or  gravelly 

163 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

regions  it  is  nearly  free  from  these  depreda- 
tions. The  growth  in  the  latter  locations  is 
slower,  but  still  it  is  a  valuable  tree  for  the 
purposes  named.  There  is  no  reforesting  of 
cut -over  areas  of  any  consequence,  but  some- 
thing of  this  ought  undoubtedly  to  be  done, 
especially  on  the  lands  subject  to  overflows, 
along  the  Illinois  and  Mississippi  rivers.  In  the 
southern  part  of  the  state,  where  the  richest 
forest  areas  originally  prevailed,  scarcely  any- 
thing but  the  destructive  processes  are  in 
operation. 

The  University  of  Illinois  put  out,  in  1871, 
— additions  having  been  made  during  the  fol- 
lowing three  or  four  years,— about  twenty 
acres  in  blocks  of  from  a  fourth  acre  to  one 
acre,  of  a  number  of  different  kinds  of  decidu- 
ous and  evergreen  trees.  This  was  for  experi- 
mental purposes,  and  the  plantation  is  now 
showing  some  interesting  results.  The  kinds 
that  are  now  showing  best  development  are 
hardy  catalpa,  European  larch,  white  and  bur- 
oak,  green  ash  and  white  pine.  The  last  has 
been  somewhat  surprising  in  its  development, 
since  it  was  planted  upon  a  flat,  not  very  well- 
drained  area,  having  black  loamy  soil.  More 

164 


MODERN    FORESTRY 

often  this  tree  grows  upon  sandy  soil.  So  far 
as  commercial  results  are  concerned,  it  cannot 
be  claimed  that  there  is  hope  in  getting  such 
returns  as  would  have  been  secured  from  the 
usual  agricultural  crops  of  the  region,  but  it  is 
probable  that  ultimately  the  experiment  will 
prove  that  such  an  investment  would  be  con- 
sidered fairly  remunerative. 

"The  state  of  Alabama,"  comes  the  word 
from  that  commonwealth,  "is  doing  nothing 
in  the  way  of  replanting  denuded  lands.  We 
have  still  areas  of  forests,  and  our  people  are 
not  as  yet  sensible  of  the  necessity  for  re-sup- 
plying what  is  being  taken  away." 

The  state  of  New  York,  through  its  For- 
estry Department,  has  already  undertaken,  and 
is  carrying  on,  extensive  operations  in  the 
way  of  reforesting  the  waste  and  denuded 
lands  in  its  forest  preserve. 

The  work  was  commenced  in  a  small  way 
in  1901,  at  which  time  two  plantations  of 
white  pine  were  made  in  the  Catskill  district. 
In  the  following  year  five  hundred  thousand 
young  plants — white  pine,  Scotch  pine,  Nor- 
way spruce  and  larch — were  set  out  on  the 
burned  plains  near  Saranac  Junction,  in  Frank- 

165 


THE    NEW  EARTH 

lin  county.  These  plants  consisted  of  two- 
year-old  seedlings,  and  also  of  three-  and  four- 
year-old  transplants  from  the  state  nurseries. 
They  were  spaced  five  feet  apart,  the  planta- 
tion including  over  seven  hundred  acres,  as 
there  were  some  swampy  places  on  which  no 
work  could  be  done.  The  work  on  these  fields 
was  very  successful  and  encouraging.  Less 
than  one  per  cent  of  the  entire  planted  stock 
died;  but  these  failures  were  replaced  by  live 
plants,  and  today  there  is  not  a  blank  in  the 
entire  plantation.  At  first  these  young  trees 
grew  very  slowly  until  they  recovered  from 
the  shock  of  transplanting;  but  they  are  now 
waist  high,  and  it  is  expected  that  from  this 
time  on  they  will  put  on  leaders  each  year 
from  twenty  to  twenty-four  inches  in  length. 
Their  growth  was  very  rapid  in  the  summer 
of  1905,  the  leaders  on  most  of  the  plants 
attaining  the  height  mentioned. 

In  1904,  the  commission  made  a  large  plan- 
tation of  hardwoods  on  some  of  the  state 
reservations  near  the  Thousand  Islands  in  the 
St.  Lawrence  River. 

Last  year  (1905)  still  larger  plantations  were 
made  in  various  places  in  the  state  forest  pre- 
166 


MODERN    FORESTRY 

serve,  over  one  million  plants  of  different 
coniferous  species  being  set  out.  Most  of  the 
stock  for  this  work  came  from  nurseries  which 
are  maintained  by  the  Forestry  Department. 
But,  as  this  supply  was  insufficient,  the  com- 
mission imported  three  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  white  pine  plants  from  a  commercial 
nursery  in  Halstenbek,  Germany. 

It  is  the  intention  of  the  Department  to 
continue  this  work  each  year,  and  increase  its 
reforesting  operations  so  far  as  the  nurseries 
can  supply  the  young  stock.  At  present  the 
capacity  of  the  nurseries  is  insufficient  for  the 
proposed  work;  but  new  ones  will  be  estab- 
lished as  soon  as  appropriations  can  be  obtained 
for  that  purpose. 

The  only  thing  Texas  is  doing  with  respect 
to  its  forests  is  in  supporting  a  brief  course 
of  instruction  in  forestry  at  the  state  university, 
while  the  head  of  the  school  of  botany  is  pur- 
suing investigations  into  forest  resources  and 
various  forest  questions  with  relation  to  Texas, 
and  publishing  results  of  these  investigations, 
with  a  view  to  creating  general  interest  in  for- 
estry matters.  Private  interests  are  more  or 
less  taken  up  in  one  phase  or  another  of  for- 

167 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

estry,  but  receive  no  aid  from  the  state.  The 
last  legislature  had  a  forestry  committee  which 
reported  in  favor  of  a  forestry  commission,  for 
the  purpose  of  examining  the  forests  of  the 
state,  to  report  a  plan  of  procedure  looking 
to  the  state's  taking  active  part  in  certain 
forestry  plans.  This  bill  passed  the  House 
of  Representatives,  but  did  not  reach  the  Sen- 
ate early  enough  in  the  session  to  receive  con- 
sideration. Doubtless  it  will  come  up  again 
in  the  next  legislature. 

Oregon  is  not  doing  anything  in  the  way 
ot  reforesting  cut-over  areas,  or  in  making  new 
forests,  or  in  farm  forestry  generally.  On  a 
small  scale,  however,  many  of  the  farmers 
in  the  irrigated  districts  in  the  eastern  portion 
of  the  state  are  setting  out  some  trees  on  small 
bodies  of  land,  but  this  is  being  done  on  such 
a  small  scale  that  it  is  hardly  worth  mentioning. 

An  act  was  passed  by  the  last  legislature  of 
this  state  providing  for  the  protection  of  for- 
ests and  timber  of  the  state  against  forest 
fires,  and,  to  that  end,  providing  for  the 
appointment  of  fire  rangers  and  defining  their 
duties,  stipulating  for  a  closed  season  and  pro- 
viding for  the  punishment  of  persons  who  set 

168 


MODERN    FORESTRY 

out  fires  which  cause,  or  may  cause,  injury 
to  forests  or  timber,  and  providing  penalties 
for  violations  of  the  several  sections  of  the  act. 
Aside  from  this,  practically  nothing  has  been 
done  by  legislation  or  by  private  enterprise 
in  this  state.  It  must  be  borne  in  mind,  how- 
ever, that  nearly  one-fifth  of  the  area  of  Ore- 
gon is  included  within  forest  reservations,  by 
authority  of  the  President  acting  under  laws 
of  Congress. 

Some  advance  along  the  lines  of  protection 
of  forests  in  Ohio  has  been  made,  favorable 
action  toward  which  Governor  Herrick  recom- 
mended in  his  first  message,  and  will  do  so 
again  in  his  message  to  this  legislature,  1905- 
1906,  asking  them  to  form  a  bureau  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Good  Roads  Commission. 

North  Dakota  is  distinctly  a  prairie  state, 
but  efforts  have  been  made  to  encourage  the 
forestation  of  treeless  areas.  This  work  is 
being  done,  in  a  measure,  through  the  State 
Agricultural  College,  which  is  encouraging  the 
planting  of  trees  for  shelter  about  farm  homes, 
and  some  progress  is  being  made.  At  the  last 
session  of  the  legislature  a  tree  bounty  was 
provided,  of  three  dollars  an  acre,  to  every 

169 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

person  who  shall  hereafter  plant,  cultivate  and 
keep  in  a  growing  condition  one  acre,  and  not 
more  than  ten  acres,  of  prairie  land  with  any 
kind  of  forest  trees,  which  bounty  shall  be 
paid  in  the  way  of  a  reduction  of  taxes  levied 
against  real  estate  to  that  extent.  Every  per- 
son planting  forest  trees  suitable  for  hedges 
along  public  highways  is  entitled  to  an  annual 
bounty  of  two  dollars  for  every  eighty  rods 
of  each  row  in  length.  It  is  hoped  that  these 
provisions  will,  to  some  extent,  encourage  the 
forestation  of  treeless  areas. 

In  Kentucky,  up  to  this  time  (1905)  no  leg- 
islation has  been  made  looking  to  the  preser- 
vation of  the  state's  forests,  except  a  private 
organization  called  the  State  Forestry  Asso- 
ciation. At  the  last  session  of  the  legislature 
a  bill  was  introduced  looking  to  state  aid  for 
this  association,  but  it  did  not  pass. 

Idaho  is  a  very  young  state,  and  its  laws  are 
still  in  process  of  formation.  The  state  owns 
a  great  deal  of  forest  lands,  and  at  the  last  ses- 
sion of  the  legislature  a  bill  was  passed  which 
provides  for  the  perpetuation  of  the  state's 
forests.  Hereafter  only  merchantable  timber 
will  be  sold,  and  the  purchaser  will  be  required 

170 


MODERN    FORESTRY 

to  clear  away  all  stumps  and  branches,  lessen- 
ing the  danger  from  fire,  and  placing  the  forest 
so  that  within  an  appreciably  short  time  the 
timber  value  will  be  renewed. 

In  1887,  the  Kansas  legislature  enacted  a 
law  creating  the  office  of  forest  commissioner, 
to  encourage  the  planting  and  growing  of  for- 
est trees.  Two  tracts  of  land  were  secured, 
upon  which  experimental  forest  stations  were 
established.  The  law  provides  especially  for 
such  trees  as  should  be  particularly  adapted  to 
the  plains  region  of  the  state ;  the  trees  grown, 
when  ready  for  transplanting,  being  issued  at 
the  two  stations  to  all  residents  of  the  state 
applying  for  them.  From  fifteen  hundred  to 
two  thousand  five  hundred  applications  have 
been  filed  yearly  since  1 888.  Commissioner  of 
Forestry  Beaubien  says  regarding  results : 

"Where  ten  years  ago  there  was  but  the 
open  expanse  of  sky  and  grass,  until  the  eye 
grew  weary  of  the  never-ending  monotony, 
today  can  be  heard  the  song  of  the  mocking- 
bird and  the  thrush  as  they  nest  and  rear  their 
young  in  our  artificial  forests.  This  has  been 
accomplished  without  artificial  irrigation." 

The  state  of  Pennsylvania  now  owns  and 

171 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

has  under  forestry  control  five  hundred  and 
sixty  thousand  acres  of  timber  land,  chiefly 
located  in  the  central  portion  of  the  state. 
As  an  illustration  of  the  effectiveness  of  state 
supervision  in  the  one  matter  of  fires,  it  is 
shown  that  while  there  were  probably  three 
thousand  deer-hunters  upon  the  reservations 
of  the  state  during  the  month  of  November, 
1904, — the  deer-shooting  season, — not  a  forest 
fire  was  reported  from  this  source.  A  forest 
academy,  under  the  direction  of  the  state  for- 
ester, has  been  established.  With  all  efforts 
to  preserve  the  forests,  the  rate  of  cutting  still 
remains  greater  than  the  rate  of  reproduction. 
One  of  the  very  interesting  features  of  forestry 
in  Pennsylvania  is  the  encouraging  of  the 
planting  and  cultivation  of  osier  willows  for 
use  in  manufacturing  baskets  for  an  indefinite 
number  of  purposes, — wicker  furniture,  car- 
riage and  automobile  bodies,  and  so  on.  With 
the  rise  in  wood  values,  boxes  made  of  wood 
for  shipping  purposes  become  more  expen- 
sive, and  the  willow  baskets  admirably  take 
their  place.  The  Department  of  Forestry  in 
Pennsylvania  makes  note  of  one  hundred  and 
sixty-eight  varieties  of  willows,  and  suggests 

172 


MODERN    FORESTRY 

the  more  important  ones  which  may  be 
planted  on  vacant  and  otherwise  unproductive 
land,  and  be  made  to  yield  a  good  income. 
Ample  directions  are  given  for  the  planting 
and  care  of  willow  plantations. 

In  the  period  of  the  early  history  of  Indiana, 
that  state  was  heavily  timbered  with  forests 
of  hard  woods.  The  forests  rapidly  disappeared 
when  the  farmers  came,  and  it  was  not  until 
the  year  1900  that  forestry  became  a  matter 
of  state  concern.  The  almost  complete  ab- 
sence of  virgin  forest  in  the  state  and  a  gen- 
eral timber  scarcity  were  sharply  brought 
home  to  the  people,  and  a  hearty  response  for 
forest  improvement  followed.  A  State  For- 
estry Board  was  established  in  1901,  consisting 
of  five  members,  one  to  be  chosen  from  the 
State  Forestry  Association,  one  from  the  Re- 
tail Lumber  Dealers'  Association  of  Indiana, 
one  from  the  faculty  of  Purdue  University, 
one  from  the  skilled  woodworkers  of  the  state, 
and  one  having  knowledge  of  timber  culture 
and  of  forest  preservation, — all,  save  the  last, 
known  as  the  state  forester,  to  serve  without 
compensation.  Two  years  after  the  establish- 
ment of  the  board,  over  thirty  thousand  trees 

173 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

nual  growth  of  spruce  in  the  state  warrants 
the  cutting  of  637,000,000  feet  per  year  with- 
out depleting  the  supply.  The  pulp  mills  con- 
sume about  275,000,000  feet  of  spruce  per 
year,  leaving  for  general  sawmill  purposes 
362,000,000  feet  of  spruce  without  encroaching 
upon  the  legitimate  growth  of  the  forests.  It 
it  thus  shown  that  with  proper  fire  protection 
and  with  careful  harvesting  there  is  ample 
spruce  in  the  state  to  supply  a  large  demand 
indefinitely.  Even  when  the  land  has  been 
ravaged  by  the  thoughtless  lumberman,  the 
undersized  trees  left  standing  furnish  another 
crop  in  a  comparatively  short  time.  In  1903-04 
the  legislature  of  the  state  made  an  appropria- 
tion for  public  instruction  in  forestry,  this  in- 
struction taking  the  form  of  a  forestry  course 
in  the  University  of  Maine.  The  course  em- 
braces general  forestry,  forest  botany,  including 
field  and  laboratory  work,  forest  measurements, 
lumbering,  forest  management  and  the  like. 
There  is  a  major  course,  which  requires  four 
years,  leading  to  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of 
Science  in  Forestry. 

It  took  fully  a  quarter  of  a  century  in  Mich- 
igan to  develop  forestry  interest.  As  President 

176 


MODERN    FORESTRY 

Garfield,  of  the  Michigan  Forestry  Commission, 
puts  it,  very  little  headway  was  made  until  the 
bulk  of  the  forests  was  practically  gone.  It 
was  only  when  the  farm  wood-lots  were  reduced 
to  a  minimum,  when  industries  dependent 
upon  the  forests  for  raw  material  began  to 
leave  the  state,  and  when  the  rivers  of  the  state 
began  to  wane,  that  interest  in  forestry  could 
be  aroused.  Though  once  one  of  the  leading 
forest  states,  it  was  not  until  1899  that  a  for- 
estry commission  was  appointed,  having  little 
authority  and  very  little  funds.  Later,  forty 
thousand  acres  of  state  lands  were  set  aside 
for  the  work  of  the  forestry  commission,  a 
forest  nursery  was  established,  and  a  million 
trees,  in  1906,  were  ready  for  planting.  A  de- 
partment of  forestry  in  the  state  university 
and  in  the  state  agricultural  college  has  been 
provided,  and  courses  of  lectures  on  forestry 
are  projected  for  the  state  normal  schools. 
About  one-third  of  the  area  of  the  state  is 
stripped  of  timber  and  burned  over,  every  acre 
of  which,  according  to  the  forestry  commission, 
might  be  reforested.  More  than  six  million 
acres  of  this  region  have  become  state  tax  title- 
lands.  A  most  earnest  effort  is  now  being 

177 


THE   NEW    EARTH 

made  to  arouse  general  interest  in  forestry  and 
to  redeem  the  state  from  the  sad  condition 
into  which  it,  with  other  commonwealths,  has 
fallen  by  reason  of  the  thoughtlessness  and  the 
rapacity  of  those  whose  duty  lay  in  providing 
for  the  future. 

Some  three  hundred  thousand  acres  of  state 
land  in  Wisconsin  are  now  included  within  the 
forest  reserve.  The  chief  object  is  to  protect 
the  headwaters  of  the  important  rivers,  and 
reserve  a  supply  of  timber  for  the  industries 
which  are  dependent  upon  the  forests  for  their 
raw  material.  State  Forester  Griffin  says,  re- 
garding the  outlook: 

"  Until  we  have  secured  the  necessary  land, 
and  in  a  compact  body  so  that  we  can  build 
fire  lines  and  protect  it  from  fire,  we  shall 
probably  not  do  any  planting,  except  on  small 
tracts  where  the  land  is  unusually  clear  from 
slash.  At  the  next  session  of  the  legislature, 
we  shall  probably  attempt  to  pass  a  bill  ex- 
empting from  taxation  lands  which  are  planted 
with  forest  trees,  at  least  twelve  hundred  to 
the  acre,  so  as  to  encourage  reforestation  both 
by  lumber  companies  and  farmers.  Many  of 
the  lumber  companies  are  practicing  a  more  or 

178 


MODERN    FORESTRY 

less  rough  system  of  forestry,  and  I  think  that 
the  interest  in  the  work  is  increasing  through- 
out the  state." 

In  all  of  the  states  where  forestry  is  now 
being  so  zealously  studied,  the  question  of  fire 
protection  and  fire  prevention  is  being  consid- 
ered as  one  of  paramount  importance. 

But  important  as  is  all  the  work  of  the  indi- 
vidual states  in  the  production  of  forests,  one 
of  the  most  important  advances  promises  to  be 
in  the  creation  of  new  and  fast-growing  trees 
along  the  lines  laid  down  in  the  experimental 
work  of  Luther  Burbank,  the  great  plant- 
breeder.  Mr.  Burbank  has  demonstrated  that 
trees  can  be  bred  for  any  particular  quality,— 
for  largeness,  strength,  shape,  amount  of  pitch, 
tannin,  sugar  and  the  like,  for  rapidity  of 
growth;  in  fact,  that  any  desirable  attribute 
of  a  tree  may  be  developed  simply  by  breed- 
ing and  selecting.  He  has  created  walnut  trees, 
by  crossing  common  varieties,  that  have  grown 
six  times  as  much  in  thirteen  years  as  their 
ancestors  did  in  twenty-eight  years,  preserving, 
at  the  same  time,  the  strength,  hardness  and 
texture  of  their  forebears.  The  grain  of  the 
wood  has  been  made  more  beautiful  at  the 

179 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

same  time.  In  twelve  years'  time,  without 
irrigation,  these  trees  have  grown  to  be  eighty 
feet  in  height,  with  a  branch  spread  of  seventy- 
five  feet,  trunks  nearly  three  feet  in  diameter 
at  the  base  and  nearly  two  feet  in  diameter 
at  fifteen  feet  from  the  ground.  The  trees  are 
fine  for  fuel  and  splendidly  adapted  to  furni- 
ture manufacture.  This  demonstration  of  the 
possibility  of  tree-breeding  places  an  entirely 
different  aspect  upon  forestry  the  world  over. 
It  points  the  way,  too,  to  the  reforesting  of  the 
denuded  areas  of  the  earth  at  a  pace  far  more 
rapid  than  any  ever  before  known.  By  con- 
stant selection  of  those  seedlings  of  a  certain 
cross,  or  of  a  variety  not  crossed,  which  show 
unusual  rapidity  of  growth,  this  particular 
quality  of  rapidity  is  attained,  the  descendants 
of  these  seedlings  continuing  the  rapidity  of 
growth  as  soon  as  enough  time  has  elapsed 
to  fix  them  in  their  course.  So  in  the  case  of 
any  other  attribute,  the  seedlings,  which,  as 
they  develop,  show  in  larger  measure  the  attri- 
bute sought,  are  the  ones  selected  for  the  fix- 
ing and  preserving  of  this  larger  measure  of 
excellence. 

While  in  the  generation  of  the  life  of  the 

180 


60 


MODERN    FORESTRY 

New  Earth  great  progress  has  been  made  in 
forestry,  both  national  and  state,  the  work 
now  under  way  by  the  nation  and  by  indi- 
vidual commonwealths,  taken  in  connection 
with  this  remarkable  demonstration  of  the 
power  of  man  to  create  trees  practically  at 
will,  makes  the  future  fuller  of  promise  by  far 
than  the  past.  In  no  one  of  the  various  lines 
of  life  that  take  their  rise  in  the  earth  has 
there  been  greater  need  of  earnest  and  pro- 
gressive action  in  this  present  revival  of  knowl- 
edge, or  this  creation  of  knowledge,  if  you  will, 
than  in  this  one  of  forestry:  in  no  line  has  a 
greater  energy  been  set  in  motion. 


181 


CHAPTER    XI 

MODERN    DAIRYING 

A  BOUT  the  time  that  the  activities  of  the 
J^-  New  Earth  were  set  in  motion,  the  staid 
folk  of  a  picturesque  Swedish  hamlet,  and  those 
along  the  country  roads  in  the  vicinity,  used 
to  derive  no  end  of  amusement  from  the  visits 
of  a  lad  from  the  village  who  was  accustomed 
to  go  from  house  to  house  asking  for  the  privi- 
lege of  repairing  things, — old  watches  or  clocks, 
jewelry,  and  the  like.  He  was  not  seeking 
profit  but  pleasure,  for  he  had  an  inborn 
delight  in  doing  such  things.  In  case  there 
was  a  broken  tool  of  some  kind,  a  door-knob 
or  knocker  out  of  order, — anything,  in  fact,  that 
needed  tinkering, — he  begged  to  be  allowed  to 
put  it  in  shape.  So  the  country  folk,  good- 
naturedly,  humored  him,  and  the  defective 
articles  were  soon  made  whole.  The  fame  of 
the  lad  spread,  and  great  things  were  prophe- 
sied of  him  as  an  inventor.  When  a  little 
older,  he  produced  a  number  of  quite  impor- 

182 


MODERN    DAIRYING 

tant  labor-saving  devices,  among  them  an 
automatic  cow-milker,  which  aroused  no  slight 
interest  among  the  country  folk. 

I  do  not  know  whether  or  not  it  was  this 
latter  that  turned  his  attention  to  the  inven- 
tion which  brought  him  fame  and  money,  but, 
in  any  event,  he  became  convinced  that  the 
old  way  of  allowing  milk  to  stand  until  the 
cream  had  risen  was  not  the  best  way.  So  he 
set  about  perfecting  a  device  for  the  mechani- 
cal separation  of  cream  from  milk.  The  inven- 
tion was  a  simple  one,  the  act  itself  so  natural, 
so  to  say,  it  was  curious  that  no  one  had  ever 
hit  upon  such  a  thing  before.  Though  simple, 
it  has  yet  proven  one  of  the  wonderful  inven- 
tions of  the  age,  the  de  Laval  separator.  For 
it  was  the  great  Swedish  inventor — whose 
fame  rests  by  no  means  on  this  device  alone 
—who  was  so  greatly  admired  as  a  lad  by  the 
country  folk,  when  he  turned  tinker  among 
their  disabled  household  articles  and  kept  the 
community  in  repair. 

De  Laval's  invention  is  one  of  the  most 
important  contributions  made  to  the  life  of 
the  New  Earth.  Without  it,  modern  dairying 
could  never  have  attained  its  present  com- 

183 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

manding  position.  These  little  machines  that 
take  the  milk  fresh  from  the  cow,  whirl  it  about 
with  great  rapidity,  separate  the  milk  from  the 
cream,  and  send  the  former  foaming  out  through 
one  spout, — the  cream,  at  the  same  moment, 
escaping  through  another  spout, — have  exerted 
an  immense  economic  influence.  It  would  be 
idle  to  attempt  an  estimate  of  the  millions 
of  dollars  that  have  been  saved,  in  time,  labor 
and  actual  expenditure  of  money.  Not  only 
this,  but  the  saving  in  material  has  been  great. 
In  an  average  herd  of  well-kept,  well-bred 
cattle,  the  milk  will  probably  average  four  per 
cent  of  fat ;  that  is,  there  will  be  four  per  cent 
directly  convertible  into  butter.  Under  the 
old  method  of  setting  the  milk  in  shallow  pans 
for  the  cream  to  rise,  not  all  of  the  cream  was 
obtained,  fully  one-half  of  one  per  cent  remain- 
ing in  the  milk,  so  that  one-eighth  of  all  the 
butter-fat  was  lost  for  butter  manufacture. 
Under  the  new  method,  a  first-class  separator 
should  not  leave  more  than  one-tenth  of  one 
per  cent  of  the  cream  in  the  milk,  perhaps  not 
so  much  as  that.  The  importance  of  the  inven- 
tion is  still  more  clearly  shown  in  view  of  the 
fact  that,  under  the  old  order  of  things,  some 

184 


MODERN    DAIRYING 

farmers  set  their  milk  in  deep  cans  in  tanks  of 
ice- water  for  the  cream  to  rise,  losing  thereby 
six  to  eight  per  cent  of  the  total  amount  of 
fat,  practically  all  saved  by  means  of  the  sepa- 
rator, using  the  milk  direct  from  the  cow. 

It  is  of  interest  to  note  that  in  the  whole  of 
Sweden,  where  his  inventions  have  placed  him 
in  popular  estimation  among  the  foremost  men 
of  his  generation,  Gustaf  De  Laval  is  held  in 
just  as  high  esteem  as  he  was  in  the  hamlet  in 
those  early  days  when  he  won  the  hearts  of 
the  good  housewives.  He  is  a  man  with  a  pro- 
digious capacity  for  labor,  as  shown  not  only 
by  the  number  of  his  other  inventions,  but 
by  his  success  in  the  development  of  great  in- 
dustries. Though  an  inventor,  he  has  shown 
marked  business  ability,  having  amassed  a  for- 
tune. He  is  pronounced  a  man  of  the  most 
delightful  attributes,  unspoiled  by  successes,  of 
great  strength  of  character,  of  most  charming 
personality. 

But  while,  on  one  side  the  Atlantic,  one  man 
was  developing  an  invention  that  was  to  prove 
of  such  great  value  to  the  dairy  world,  another 
man  on  this  side  the  sea  was  perfecting  another 
invention  destined  to  play  an  even  greater  part 

185 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

in  the  production  of  the  world's  dairy  supplies. 
Indeed,  even  with  the  mechanical  separation  of 
the  butter-fat  from  the  milk,  modern  dairying 
could  never  have  reached  its  present  plane  had 
not  an  American,  Dr.  S.  M.  Babcock,  of  the 
University  of  Wisconsin  Experiment  Station, 
invented  a  machine  for  the  determining  of  the 
amount  of  butter  in  milk,  without  waiting  for 
the  cream  to  rise  or  for  the  milk  to  be  separated 
from  the  cream.  Dr.  Babcock  had  long  been 
making  investigations  in  the  line  of  the  dairy, 
when  he  one  day  hit  upon  a  plan  for  testing 
milk  for  its  butter-fat.  The  device  which  he 
made  for  the  test,  also,  like  most  other  impor- 
tant inventions,  a  very  simple  affair,  was  merely 
a  tin  receptacle  like  a  pan  in  shape,  with  a  cover 
to  it,  on  the  inside  of  which  were  compartments 
to  hold  several  small  bottles.  By  means  of  a 
simple  crank  and  wheel,  the  pan  holding  the 
bottles  could  be  made  to  revolve  rapidly. 

He  placed  milk  in  the  little  bottles,  along 
with  a  small  portion  of  sulphuric  acid.  This 
acid  would  dissolve  all  the  solids  in  the  milk 
save  the  butter-fat.  When  the  pan  was  rapidly 
revolved,  the  butter-fat  was  forced  upward  from 
the  milk  into  the  narrow  neck  of  the  bottle, 

186 


MODERN    DAIRYING 

upon  which  there  was  a  graduate  to  measure 
the  amount  of  fat  lodged  there  as  a  result  of 
the  rapid  whirling.  It  was  easy  to  read  the 
scale  in  the  neck  of  the  bottle,  and  from  it  to 
compute  the  amount  of  butter-fat  in  the  milk 
from  which  this  was  taken  as  a  sample.  It  was 
all  such  a  simple  thing  from  one  point  of  view, 
but  it  was  of  tremendous  importance,  simple 
though  it  seemed,  judged  by  its  bearing  upon 
one  of  the  world's  great  industries. 

It  was  quickly  apparent,  as  the  news  of  the 
invention  spread,  that  a  new  era  had  dawned 
in  dairying.  Hitherto  milk  had  been  sold  with 
no  reference  to  its  quality.  The  rich  product 
of  the  best  herds  came  in  unfair  competition 
with  the  milk  from  poorer  herds,  or  with  milk 
which  had  been  diluted  with  water  or  other- 
wise adulterated.  Under  the  new  order  of 
things,  all  milk  must  sell  upon  its  own  individ- 
ual merits.  No  matter  how  many  pounds  of 
milk  a  farmer,  for  example,  might  bring  to  his 
local  creamery,  he  was  not  to  be  paid,  any 
longer,  by  the  quantity  but  by  the  quality.  It 
made  a  complete  revolution ;  like  many  another 
revolution,  it  was  an  evolution  also. 

Today  the  Babcock  milk  test  is  adopted  by 

187 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

the  dairymen  of  all  nations.  It  is  proving  of 
great  value.  It  is  estimated  that  in  his  own 
state,  Wisconsin,  the  saving  per  year  by  its 
use  is  fully  a  million  of  dollars,  while  a  single 
syndicate,  comprising  one  hundred  and  thirty 
creameries,  according  to  the  testimony  of  its 
manager,  saves  at  least  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  dollars  a  year  by  means  of  this  test. 

These  two  men  have  not  only  made  modern 
dairying  possible,  added  enormously  to  the 
wealth  of  nations,  and  been  of  large  service  in 
relieving  man  of  toil,  but  they  have  opened  the 
way  to  an  indefinite  expansion  of  the  dairy 
industry,  so  that  they  are  contributors  to  the 
wealth  of  posterity  far  more  than  to  that  of 
the  generation  in  which  they  live. 

Without  drawing  any  unfair  distinction  or 
casting  any  discredit  upon  Dr.  De  Laval,  it  may 
be  said  that  the  invention  of  Dr.  Babcock  takes 
on  a  peculiar  interest  in  view  of  the  fact  that, 
though  he  might  have  amassed  a  colossal  for- 
tune had  he  taken  out  a  patent  upon  his  inven- 
tion, he  yet  gave  it  to  the  world  as  the  other 
remarkable  results  of  experiment  station  work 
have  been  given  to  the  world,  free  of  all  cost, 
— a  significant  and  commanding  illustration  of 

188 


z 

bo 


MODERN    DAIRYING 

the  fact  that   unselfishness  is   not  yet   dead 
among  men. 

But  Dr.  Babcock,  like  De  Laval,  has  not  con- 
fined his  efforts  to  one  line,  though  the  benefit 
derived  from  his  other  discoveries,  like  that  of 
the  milk  test,  has  been  public,  not  private.  He 
has  made  exhaustive  studies  into  the  composi- 
tion of  milk  and  other  substances,  always  hav- 
ing in  mind  the  practical  bearing  of  the  work. 
He  invented  the  viscometer,  by  means  of  which 
the  viscosity,  or  the  amount  of  glutinous  or 
sticky  substances  in  oils  might  be  determined ; 
devised  a  method  of  analyzing  milk  which  has 
been  accepted  as  the  standard  by  the  official 
chemists  of  the  United  States,  and  is  largely 
in  use  in  Europe ;  discovered  a  method  for  de- 
termining the  number  and  size  of  the  fat-glob- 
ules in  milk,  and  a  method  for  the  mechanical 
separation  of  the  casein  in  the  milk  from  the 
other  constituents.  In  connection  with  Dr.  H. 
L.  Russell,  also  of  the  Wisconsin  station,  he 
made  an  important  discovery,  finding  a  diges- 
tive ferment  in  milk,  an  enzyme,  resembling  the 
secretions  of  the  pancreatic  organ  of  animals. 
This  ferment  has  been  given  the  name  "galac- 
tose."  The  discovery  is  among  the  most  im- 

189 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

portant  in  the  history  of  the  New  Earth.  It 
was  found  that  to  this  agent  is  largely  due  the 
ripening  of  cheese.  It  was  formerly  believed 
that  this  ripening,  or  curing,  was  due  to  bac- 
teria, and  it  was  also  believed  that  cheese  must 
be  ripened  at  a  high  temperature.  The  very 
opposite  has  been  found  to  be  the  case,  the 
cheese  cured  at  low  temperature,  beginning 
below  freezing  and  rising  somewhat  above, 
being  richer  in  flavor  and  having  less  shrinkage 
in  weight.  The  old-fashioned  curing-rooms  are 
thus  rendered  unnecessary.  Several  hundreds  of 
dollars  may  thus  be  saved  in  the  construction 
of  every  cheese  factory.  The  two  also  discov- 
ered, or  devised,  what  is  known  as  the  Wisconsin 
Curd  Test,  by  means  of  which  impurities,  as 
dirt  or  bacteria,  may  at  once  be  determined 
in  milk.  The  test  is  of  great  aid  to  cheese- 
makers. 

Other  practical  scientists  in  this  country 
and  Europe  have  been  giving  close  study  to 
the  dairy.  In  the  United  States  the  experi- 
ment stations  are  putting  forth  many  bulletins 
which,  though  they  have  a  limited  circulation 
(each  station's  publication  going  chiefly  to  the 
people  in  that  state,  and  thus  preventing  a 

190 


MODERN    DAIRYING 

diffusion  of  bulletins  on  the  same  subject  from 
other  states),  are  yet  of  marked  value. 

These  bulletins  present  some  curiously  in- 
teresting information,  some  of  which  may  be 
here  indicated. 

In  Iowa,  for  example,  a  state  with  large 
dairy  interests,  a  recent  bulletin  shows  in  en- 
tertaining fashion  that  the  dairymen  of  that 
state  could  sell  four  hundred  thousand  dollars' 
worth  of  water  in  their  butter  each  year,  if 
they  would  only  conform  to  the  standard  the 
butter-using  countries  of  Europe  have  estab- 
lished. England,  referred  to  as  the  greatest 
butter-using  nation,  with  other  European  na- 
tions, wants  butter  having  sixteen  per  cent  of 
water.  Tests  made  in  a  single  year,  1902,  of 
eight  hundred  samples  in  four  hundred  cream- 
eries distributed  over  eighteen  states,  developed 
the  fact  that  there  was  an  average  of  eleven 
and  eight- tenths  per  cent  of  water  in  American 
butter.  In  Iowa  alone,  the  change  to  sixteen 
per  cent  would  result  in  increasing  the  yield  of 
butter  each  year  about  two  millions  of  pounds, 
"which  would  mean,"  in  the  words  of  the  bul- 
letin, "a  financial  increase  to  the  dairymen  of 
Iowa  of  about  four  hundred  thousand  dollars, 

191 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

without  the  investment  or  the  expenditure  of 
a  single  dollar." 

"It  should  be  distinctly  understood,"  the 
bulletin  continues,  "that  the  writers  do  not  fa- 
vor an  excessive  amount  of  moisture  in  butter, 
but  since  the  world's  best  commercial  and 
scientific  butter  judges,  when  viewed  by  them 
from  the  consumer's  as  well  as  from  the  pro- 
ducer's standpoint,  have  fixed  the  maximum 
standard  of  moisture  in  good  butter  to  be  six- 
teen per  cent,  it  is  a  matter  of  business  for  the 
producers  to  come  as  near  to  this  standard  as 
possible." 

The  studies  in  bacteria  as  they  relate  to 
milk  have  been  exhaustive,  and  many  inter- 
esting developments  have  followed.  One  in- 
vestigator, noting  the  size  of  the  bacteria  that 
appear  in  milk,  says  that  if  they  could  be 
increased  to  the  size  of  baseballs,  and  a  man 
should  be  increased  in  the  same  proportion,  he 
would  stand  over  fifty  miles  high. 

When  the  milk  lies  in  the  udder  of  the 
healthy  cow,  it  is  germ-free,  but  the  moment 
it  is  exposed  to  the  air  there  is  danger  of  con- 
tamination in  a  thousand  and  one  ways,  for 
the  bacteria  abound  in  air,  earth  and  water. 

192 


MODERN    DAIRYING 

For  some  reason,  the  milk  that  is  fresh  from 
the  cow  is  particularly  susceptible  to  the  bac- 
teria, and  their  development  in  milk  proceeds 
with  remarkable  rapidity.  At  the  Maryland 
station,  many  tests  have  been  made.  In  a 
single  cubic  centimeter  of  milk,  say  about  one- 
fourth  of  a  teaspoonful,  in  one  test  where  the 
milk  was  first  set  in  water  standing  at  sixty 
degrees  Fahrenheit,  held  for  fifteen  hours  and 
then  cooled  until  the  milk  stood  at  the  same 
temperature,  7,000  bacteria  were  found  in  the 
cubic  centimeter  of  the  fresh  milk,  2,500,000 
at  the  end  of  fifteen  hours,  69,000,000  at  the 
end  of  twenty-four  hours,  and  300,000,000  at 
the  end  of  thirty-nine  hours, — suggesting  their 
marvelous  reproductive  powers. 

The  effect  of  the  bacteria  upon  the  milk 
is  to  cause  it  to  sour,  to  make  it  less  whole- 
some for  invalids  and  children,  and,  often,  to 
impart  to  it  a  disagreeable  flavor.  While  there 
are  bacteria  known  to  be  beneficent  and  aidful 
to  man,  there  can  be  no  question  that  those 
which  so  rapidly  develop  in  milk  carry  death 
and  disease.  If  disease  does  not  follow  the  use 
of  impure  milk,  it  is  because  the  system  into 
which  it  is  taken  is  strong  enough  to  resist. 

193 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

One  writer  goes  so  far  as  to  say,  "Any  milk 
which  shows  a  sediment  on  the  bottom  of  a 
transparent  vessel  upon  standing  one  hour  is 
not  fit  for  human  food." 

But  reform  in  methods  since  the  New  Earth 
began,  and  particularly  in  the  last  ten  years 
or  less,  has  done  much  to  safeguard  the  health 
of  the  people.  Dirt  has  been  shown  to  be 
unprofitable,  as  well  as  dangerous  to  health. 
The  untidy  milkman  of  the  old  order  of 
things  finds  himself  left  behind  in  the  race. 
All  manner  of  dirt-excluding  devices,  search- 
ing inspection  of  suspected  dairies,  with  official 
warnings  that  cattle  must  be  kept  clean  and 
stables  clean  and  utensils  as  nearly  immaculate 
as  soap  and  water  will  make  them, — these  have 
all  had  their  bearing.  The  fact  that  the  Illi- 
nois State  Dairymen's  Association,  at  their 
meeting  held  at  the  agricultural  college  of  that 
state,  sat  down  not  long  ago  to  an  elaborate 
lunch  in  the  cow-stables  of  the  college,  at  a 
long  table  extending  down  the  center  of  the 
stables,  from  which  the  members  could  all  but 
touch  the  stalls  from  their  seats,  and  all  with 
no  offense  to  sight  or  smell,  suggests  how  the 
new  order  of  things  is  displacing  the  old. 

194 


MODERN    DAIRYING 

Right  in  line  with  the  necessity  for  cleanli- 
ness in  the  products  of  the  dairy,  particularly 
milk,  is  the  necessity  for  standardization  of 
milk.  There  are  over  eighteen  million  cows 
in  the  United  States.  It  is  estimated  that  one- 
third  of  all  the  milk  they  produce  is  sold  for 
direct  consumption.  Wilbur  J.  Fraser,  chief 
of  the  Dairy  Husbandry  Department  of  the 
Illinois  Experiment  Station,  after  seven  years 
experience  in  conducting  a  sanitary  dairy  at 
the  University  of  Illinois  where  the  milk  is 
bottled  and  sold  for  direct  consumption,  makes 
these  five  points:  The  consumer  has  a  right  to 
demand  that  the  milk  delivered  to  him  shall 
be  clean ;  that  it  shall  keep  at  least  twenty-four 
hours  after  delivery  if  held  at  a  temperature 
of  60  degrees,  or  below ;  that  the  flavor  of  the 
milk  be  not  impaired  by  improper  feeding, 
careless  methods  in  handling,  or  by  the  de- 
velopment of  bacteria  which  cause  bad  flavors  • 
that  the  milk  be  not  injurious  to  health — i.e. 
that  it  contain  no  disease-producing  germs,  or 
any  form  of  preservative;  and,  last,  that  the 
milk  shall  have  a  certain  known  composition 
which  is  uniform  from  day  to  day. 

The  last  condition,  one  of  the  most  impor- 

195 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

tant  of  all,  comes  under  standardization ;  and 
this  can  be  absolutely  complied  with  by  means 
of  the  Babcock  test.  The  producer  can  tell, 
if  he  will,  precisely  how  much  butter-fat  his 
milk  contains,  simply  by  making  a  test  to  that 
effect,  labeling  his  bottles  to  correspond. 
Upon  the  quality  of  his  milk,  not  upon  its 
quantity,  should  depend  his  price.  Every  quart 
of  milk'  sold  in  the  United  States  could  be 
brought  under  this  test.  If  such  a  thing  were 
done,  the  producer,  no  less  than  the  consumer, 
would  be  protected ;  the  general  health  of  all 
adults  using  milk  would  be  safeguarded,  while 
one  of  death's  easiest  avenues  of  approach  to 
infant  life  would  be  effectively  blocked. 

Another  and  very  interesting  phase  of  the 
dairy  life  under  the  new  order  of  things  devel- 
oped in  these  stations,  is  the  individual  testing 
of  cows.  A  regular  account  may  now  be  kept 
with  each  cow.  She  can  be  compelled  to  show 
her  precise  value.  If  she  does  not  come  up  to 
a  certain  grade  of  efficiency  as  a  milk-produc- 
ing machine,  she  can  be  improved  by  a  differ- 
ent ration,  or  by  different  care  if  she  has  been 
neglected;  or,  if  she  cannot  show  fitness,  she 
can  be  discarded  from  the  herd  altogether. 

196 


o 


MODERN    DAIRYING 

Exhaustive  studies  are  being  made  at  many 
of  these  stations  into  the  food  of  the  cow,  in 
order  that  the  best  possible  results  may  be 
obtained  at  the  least  possible  expenditure  of 
money.  So,  in  a  model  herd  under  test  an 
account  is  opened  with  each  cow.  She  is 
charged  with  what  is  fed  her,  credited  with 
what  she  produces.  A  careful  record  is  kept, 
showing  her  milk  product  per  day  and  the 
quality  of  the  milk  per  day,  week  and  month. 
At  the  end  of  the  month,  the  check  sheets  in 
which  her  name,  or  number,  and  her  product 
are  recorded,  tell  precisely  what  she  is  doing. 
In  one  station,  check  was  kept  upon  a  series 
of  ten  herds  of  cattle  in  different  parts  of  the 
state.  In  one  herd,  the  best  cow  gave  8,230 
pounds  of  milk  in  a  year ;  her  per  cent  of  fat 
in  the  milk  was  5.03 ;  she  made  483  pounds  of 
butter.  The  poorest  cow  in  the  same  herd 
gave  1,986  pounds  of  milk ;  her  per  cent  of 
fat  was  4.78,  and  she  made  only  111  pounds 
of  butter.  By  means  of  this  elaborate  check- 
ing the  value  of  a  dairy  cow  can  be  accurately 
told — her  pedigree  and  her  breed  are  impor- 
tant, but  are  less  important  than  her  milk- 
and  butter-producing  powers. 

197 


Along  with  this  has  gone  a  diffusion  of 
information  as  to  the  care  of  the  herd.  At  the 
Storrs  Station  in  Connecticut,  tests  have  been 
made  with  a  covered  pail  which  admits  the 
milk  through  wire  gauze  of  fine  mesh,  to  which 
are  added  layers  of  cheese-cloth.  Prevention 
of  impurities  is  thus  secured.  The  amount  of 
dirt  in  the  milk  from  the  covered  pail  was  only 
thirty-seven  per  cent  of  that  in  the  open  pail ; 
in  other  words,  the  cover  excluded  sixty-three 
per  cent  of  the  dirt.  In  addition  to  this,  by 
the  use  of  the  covered  pail,  twenty-nine  per 
cent  of  the  total  number  of  bacteria  and  forty- 
one  per  cent  of  the  acid-producing  bacteria 
were  excluded  from  the  fresh  milk.  Where 
the  milk  was  drawn  from  the  cow  into  an 
open  pail  and  then  strained,  the  results  were 
by  no  means  so  satisfactory.  In  this  connec- 
tion, the  filtering  of  milk  as  practiced  in  Eu- 
rope is  worthy  of  note.  In  Vienna,  the  filters 
are  large  drums  of  sand  through  which  the 
milk  passes,  either  being  forced  up  through 
the  sand  from  the  bottom,  running  out  over 
the  top,  or  passing  down  through  the  sand  by 
gravity.  While  practically  the  entire  milk 
supply  of  the  city  of  Vienna  is  filtered  through 

198 


MODERN    DAIRYING 

sand  and  while  fine  results  are  obtained  in 
filtering  water  through  as  deep  layers  of  sand 
as  this  milk  passes  through,  yet  it  is  pointed 
out  in  a  bulletin  issued  by  the  Maryland  Sta- 
tion that  such  filtering  of  milk  does  not  by 
any  means  give  as  good  results  as  might  be 
expected.  "Milk"  as  the  bulletin  puts  it,  "has 
a  strange  affinity  for  dirt  and  seems  loath  to 
give  up  that  which  it  holds  in  suspension.  A 
peculiar  exposition  of  the  characteristic  of 
milk  was  noticed  in  some  work  done  at  this 
station  in  trying  to  remove  the  garlic  odor 
from  milk.  The  milk  was  filtered  through 
bone-black,  but  came  out  as  black  as  the  char- 
coal through  which  it  had  passed.  Water, 
made  turbulent  by  the  finest  clay,  was  run 
through  this  same  filter  and  came  through 
clear  as  crystal.  It  was  finally  found  that 
charcoal,  granulated  and  washed  as  free  from 
dirt  as  possible  by  agitating  in  water,  would 
still  cause  the  milk  to  turn  black  when  run 
through  it.  To  this  same  characteristic  is  very 
likely  due  the  fact  that  the  best  sand  filters 
will  not  remove  all  of  the  dirt  from  the  milk. 
Filters  seem  never  to  have  come  into  use  in 
this  country,  or  there  has  at  least  never  been 

199 


THE    NEW    EARTH 

any  report  of  their  use  as  far  as  could  be 
found.  It  is  very  likely  that  if  ever  the  cities 
of  the  country  control  the  handling  of  the 
milk  sold  within  their  limits,  the  sand  filter 
will  be  used  as  it  is  in  Europe,  providing  some 
better  means  has  not  by  that  time  been  found 
for  purifying  milk." 

In  some  ways,  the  most  important  change 
wrought  in  dairying  during  this  period  of  the 
New  Earth  has  been  in  the  freeing  of  women. 
If  there  ever  was  a  distressing  white  slavery 
it  was  that  which  bound  the  farmer's  wife  and 
daughter  to  the  -churn.  Before  this  period, 
many  farmers'  wives  were  expected,  in  addi- 
tion to  all  their  other  duties,  to  care  for  the 
milk,  attend  to  the  skimming  of  the  cream, 
churn  the  cream  into  butter,  and  laboriously 
"work"  the  butter  until  it  was  ready  for  mar- 
ket. Not  infrequently  the  milking  of  the  cows 
fell  to  their  lot  also.  The  work  was  heavy  and 
hard.  It  aggravated  ailments  to  which  over- 
worked and  underfed  women  were  liable.  It 
made  life  a  burden.  It  shortened  many  a 
woman's  life.  And,  sad  fact  that  it  was,  the 
product  which  she  turned  out,  after  the  most 
faithful  labor,  was  often,  through  lack  of 

200 


MODERN    DAIRYING 

knowledge,  a  most  wretched  product,  unpala- 
table, unwholesome,  easily  passing  into  a  con- 
dition of  offensive  rancidity. 

While  it  has  been  economically  of  large 
significance,  adding  great  wealth  to  the  nation 
and  playing  no  inconsiderable  part  in  the 
prosperity  of  the  United  States,  the  creamery 
may  be  said  to  be  most  important  of  all  in  its 
freeing  of  the  wives  and  daughters  of  the  old- 
time  American  farmers.  I  doubt  if  any  activ- 
ity which  has  sprung  into  life  in  the  period 
of  the  New  Earth  can  be  mentioned  which 
has  had  a  more  beneficent  influence  upon  the 
women  of  the  farm  than  the  establishment  of 
the  creamery. 

The  first  creamery  in  the  United  States 
appears  to  have  been  the  one  established  in 
Orange  county,  New  York,  in  1861.  Slowly 
the  plan  expanded,  as  the  farmers  saw  the 
superiority  of  this  method  over  the  old  one. 
It  was  then  the  custom  to  send  the  whole 
milk  to  the  creamery,  but  in  1875  the  farmers 
began  skimming  the  cream  themselves  and 
delivering  it,  in  place  of  the  whole  milk.  From 
this  the  step  to  the  mechanical  separation  of 
cream  from  milk  was  natural.  The  magnitude 

201 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

of  the  dairy  interests  of  the  United  States, 
now  that  they  are  assuming  in  the  broader 
field  of  the  New  Earth  the  position  to  which 
they  are  entitled,  is  seen  in  the  fact  that,  by 
the  last  census,  there  were  over  eighteen  mil- 
lions of  dairy  cows,  ninety-four  and  six-tenths 
per  cent  of  which  were  on  farms  or  elsewhere 
enclosed. 

Over  seven  billion  gallons  of  milk  were  pro- 
duced in  the  census  year  1 900,  an  average  per 
year  of  four  hundred  and  twenty-four  gallons 
per  cow.  Somewhat  over  fifty  per  cent  of  all 
the  milk  produced  came  from  the  states  of  the 
north  central  division,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois, 
Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  Iowa,  North 
and  South  Dakota,  Missouri,  Kansas  and  Ne- 
braska. During  the  same  year  nearly  one  billion, 
five  hundred  millions  of  pounds  of  butter  were 
made,  together  with  almost  three  hundred 
million  pounds  of  cheese.  It  gives  one  an 
altogether  enlarged  view  of  the  dairy  industry 
of  the  United  States  under  this  new  order  of 
things,  to  note,  in  addition  to  all  this,  the  fact 
that  the  value  of  the  dairy  interests  of  the 
United  States  is  now  considerably  more  than 
two  billions  of  dollars,  on  which  there  is  an 

202 


MODERN    DAIRYING 

income  of  over  five  hundred  millions  of  dollars 
annually. 

The  manufacture  of  cheese,  too,  on  a  scale 
at  all  commensurate  with  the  possibilities  of 
the  country,  dates  from  the  beginning  of  the 
New  Earth ;  though  the  first  cheese  factory 
was  established,  also,  in  New  York,  in  Oneida 
county,  in  1851.  By  the  close  of  1869,  the 
number  had  increased  to  over  one  thousand  in 
the  United  States.  The  manufacture  of  cheese 
was  originally  altogether  confined  to  the  farm ; 
the  results  were  not  so  satisfactory,  however, 
as  in  the  case  of  factory  manufacture,  so  that 
out  of  the  total  of  three  hundred  millions  of 
pounds  made  in  1900,  less  than  seventeen 
million  pounds  were  made  on  the  farms.  Five 
states — New  York,  Wisconsin,  Ohio,  Pennsyl- 
vania and  Michigan — made  eighty  and  four- 
tenths  per  cent  of  all  the  cheese  manufactured 
in  the  country. 

The  interest  in  cheese  manufacture,  and  in 
all  the  related  lines  leading  up  to  it,  has  been 
not  less  pronounced  on  the  part  of  the  men  of 
practical  science  than  their  interest  in  the  mak- 
ing of  butter.  The  possibilities  of  scientific 
investigation  are  far  greater  in  cheese  than  in 

203 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

butter.  "The  making  of  first-quality  cheese," 
in  the  words  of  a  bulletin  from  the  New  York 
Agricultural  Experiment  Station,  "is  undoubt- 
edly the  most  interesting  and  most  difficult  ope- 
ration in  dairying.  It  is  more  interesting  than 
butter-making,  since  the  limits  which  include 
'good  butter'  are  narrow,  while  'good  cheese' 
may  mean  any  one  of  a  hundred  products.  By 
slight  alteration  in  the  process  of  manufacture, 
milk,  a  liquid  with  a  mild  sweet  taste  and 
characteristic,  delicious  aroma,  may  be  trans- 
formed into  cheeses  of  paste-like  consistency, 
like  Camembert,  or  the  hard  and  stone-like 
Parmesan,  may  result  in  a  product  as  mild-fla- 
vored as  sweet  cream  or  pungent  enough  to 
bite  the  tongue,  as  fragrant  as  perfect  Cheddar 
or  as  repellant  as  Limberger.  .  .  .  The  art  of 
cheese-making  has,  possibly,  touched  its  high- 
est point  in  the  hands  of  a  few  makers  and  at 
rare  intervals,  for  occasionally  a  cheese  is  met 
with  that  the  scorers  pronounce  perfect;  but 
the  time  is  evidently  still  to  come  when  even  a 
few  cheese-makers  can  produce  perfect  cheese 
all  of  the  time,  or  most  makers  some  of  the 
time.  To  explain  this,  we  must  admit  that  the 
science  of  cheese-making  is  not  abreast  with 

204 


MODERN    DAIRYING 

the  art,  for  no  maker  can  tell  just  why  he  fre- 
quently fails  to  produce  the  best  of  cheese  even 
under  most  favorable  conditions,  and  no  stu- 
dent has  yet  been  able  to  give  the  world  a 
logical,  correct  account  of  the  changes  which 
take  place  during  the  history  of  a  cheese,  and 
of  the  causes  which  produce  those  changes. 
Until  such  an  understanding  of  the  underlying 
principles  has  been  more  perfectly  attained,  we 
can  hope  only  for  accidental  or  fortuitous  ad- 
vances in  the  art;  when  we  have  reached  such 
an  understanding,  it  will  certainly  be  possible 
to  raise  the  general  level  of  cheese  quality  by 
teaching  all  makers  better  methods  and  closer 
control  of  conditions ;  and  it  may  be  possible 
to  make  a  better  cheese  even  than  the  one  we 
now  call  perfect." 

Wide-spread  interest  in  modern  methods 
of  butter  and  cheese  manufacture  has  been 
aroused  and  maintained  by  the  establishment 
of  farmers'  dairy  schools  in  connection  with 
various  agricultural  colleges,  where  the  farmers 
of  a  given  dairy  region  may  meet  during  the 
duller  winter  months  for  several  weeks'  study 
under  the  direction  of  trained  experts.  Many 
of  the  farmers  have  not  had  the  advantages  of 

205 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

college  training,  and  the  information  imparted 
to  them  in  these  schools  is  of  large  practical 
value.  The  whole  subject  of  dairying  from  a 
practical,  as  well  as  from  a  scientific  standpoint, 
presents  many  features  of  peculiar  interest.  It 
is  one  of  the  most  attractive,  as  well  as,  rightly 
conducted,  one  of  the  most  remunerative  of 
all  the  many  departments  of  the  New  Earth. 


206 


CHAPTER  XII 

ANIMAL    HUSBANDRY 

^ INHERE  is,  perhaps,  no  other  department 
-•-  among  the  many  branches  of  the  New 
Earth  which  has  been  so  beset  with  dangers, 
more  open  to  the  attacks  of  enemies,  or  which 
may  be  approached,  for  good  or  ill,  from  so 
many  different  avenues,  as  the  one  of  which 
this  chapter  treats.  Perhaps  in  no  other  line 
of  modern  life  has  there  been  displayed  during 
this  period  so  much  selfishness  and  so  great 
a  determination  on  the  part  of  unfair  capital 
to  take  advantage  of  the  necessities  of  the  peo- 
ple ;  and  yet  those  who  provide  the  supply 
for  the  demand,  however  greatly  misused  they 
have  been,  have  not  allowed  this  selfishness  to 
prevent  them  from  advancing.  So  it  happens 
that  in  the  production  of  cattle,  sheep,  swine, 
horses,  and  the  like,  the  progress  made  during 
the  last  third  of  a  century  has  been  among  the 
significant  factors  in  American  farm  life.  The 
progress  has  been  along  two  main  lines,  im- 

207 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

provement  and  enlargement, — improvement  of 
native  stock  by  breeding  and  selection  and  the 
constant  testing  of  new  strains  of  blood,  to  see 
whether  or  not  they  may  be  introduced  from 
foreign  countries  with  success ;  enlargement  by 
constantly  increasing  the  number  of  animals, 
to  meet  a  demand  which  has  increased  more 
rapidly  than  the  supply. 

This  picture  rises  in  memory: 

Overhead  the  blue  sky,  the  air  crisp  with 
autumn  frosts ;  a  crowd  of  country  people 
thronging  the  paddock  at  the  county  fair,  all 
interest  lost,  for  the  moment,  in  the  many  fas- 
cinating features  of  the  fair;  far  down  the 
green  a  proud  groom  advancing  leading  an 
enormous  Percheron  stallion,  a  dark  mottled- 
gray,  be-ribboned  in  many  contests,  while  be- 
hind him  come  many  other  grooms,  each  at 
the  head  of  a  noble  animal,  each  horse  in  turn 
seeming  more  worthy  of  applause  than  his 
predecessor.  Out  in  front  of  the  throng,  watch- 
ing warily  every  movement  of  the  great  ani- 
mals, stands  a  white-haired,  white-bearded  old 
man,  type  of  the  line  of  southern  gentlemen 
from  whence  he  sprang,  receiving,  with  fine 
pride  in  his  eye,  the  tumultuous  applause  that 

208 


ANIMAL   HUSBANDRY 

comes  up  from  the  throats  and  hands  of  the 
thousands.  It  was  an  importation  of  Perche- 
rons  from  France,  put  on  exhibition  by  the 
white-haired  old  southerner,  a  pioneer,  I  think 
perhaps  it  would  be  quite  fair  to  say,  the  pio- 
neer, in  this  line  of  importation ;  in  any  event, 
he  was  among  the  first  to  begin  buying  in 
person  on  French  soil.  It  would  be  impossible 
to  form  any  adequate  estimate  of  the  influence 
of  this  importer's  stock  upon  the  native  stock 
of  the  region.  These  great  draft-horses  might 
be  supplemented  from  time  to  time  by  other 
breeds  having  distinctive  excellencies,  but  the 
original  blood  introduced  left  a  powerful  im- 
press. The  initial  work  was  all-important,  too, 
in  educating  the  farmer  to  the  possibilities 
of  strengthening  his  own  stock. 

And  so  it  has  gone  all  along  the  lines  of 
animal  life  in  the  years  of  the  New  Earth,— 
from  the  lordliest  stallion  to  the  most  vocifer- 
ous cockerel  that  ever  proclaimed  the  blueness 
of  his  blood  in  the  midst  of  an  admiring 
harem, — a  determined  effort  to  improve  the 
domestic  animal  life  of  America.  So  wide- 
spread has  been  the  interest  during  this  period, 
and  so  keen  has  been  the  rivalry,  that  no  end  of 

209 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

money  has  been  squandered  on  fancy  stock  by 
those  whose  eyes  were  blind  to  everything 
but  the  glories  of  the  stud-book  and  who 
would  content  themselves  with  any  sort  of  a 
looking  brute  if  only  there  were  an  immacu- 
late pedigree  behind;  while,  indeed,  there  has 
been  no  small  danger  through  the  introduction 
of  animals  over-bred  or  in-bred  to,  and  be- 
yond, the  danger  point  of  disease.  Yet,  on  the 
whole,  the  process  of  toning  up  what  may  be 
called  the  native  stock,  has  had  an  influence 
incalculably  powerful  upon  animal  life  in  the 
United  States. 

The  greater  portion  of  this  so-called  native 
stock  dates  back  for  its  origin,  in  the  main, 
either  to  the  Spanish  or  the  English.  The  first 
neat  cattle  came  with  Columbus,  who  brought 
them  to  the  West  Indies,  from  which  they 
spread  to  Mexico  about  the  year  1525,  and 
thence  upward  to  Spanish  territory  and  to 
what  is  now  California,  New  Mexico,  Arizona 
and  Texas.  Horses  came  with  Columbus,  too, 
and  they  were  put  to  good  service  by  DeSoto 
in  his  western  journeyings.  Doubtless  they 
were  the  progenitors  of  the  wild  horses  of  the 
Southwest,  as  were  his  cattle  the  progenitors  of 

210 


ANIMAL   HUSBANDRY 

the  Texas  cattle.  Sheep  were  a  part  of  the 
Spanish  bequest  to  America  also.  The  mission 
fathers,  who  made  their  way  north  from  Mex- 
ico to  the  present  state  of  California,  after  long 
hardships,  not  only  rejoiced  in  vineyards  and 
orchards,  but  they  grew  rich  upon  their  flocks, 
at  one  time  having  over  a  million  sheep  at 
their  missions,  aside  from  those  which  belonged 
upon  the  ranches. 

The  English,  later,  were  earnest  in  their 
endeavors  to  increase  the  animal  population  of 
the  new  world,  bringing  in  cattle  to  Massa- 
chusetts in  1624,  while  Holland  sent  cattle  to 
New  York  in  1627,  and  Denmark  sent  them 
to  New  Hampshire  in  1631.  Among  the  early 
animals  in  these  states  were  Devons,  Short- 
horns, Herefords,  Galloways  and  Alderneys. 

Improvement  in  almost  every  line  of  animal 
life  progressed  slowly.  It  seemed  to  need  that 
wide-spread  general  revival  of  interest  in  farm 
life  which  has  come  in,  with  the  New  Earth, 
to  stimulate  and  broaden  animal  husbandry. 
In  the  earlier  years  much  of  the  breeding  was 
for  show  alone.  Naturally,  with  the  rapid 
development  of  the  western  country  came 
greater  demands  for  service  stock,  so  that 

211 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

horses  on  farms,  for  example,  from  1850  to 
1900,  increased  very  nearly  300  per  cent.  Not- 
withstanding the  fear  of  many  that  the  horse 
would  give  way  before  the  bicycle,  the  motor- 
cycle and  the  automobile,  the  horses  in  the 
United  States  number  at  present  more  than 
twenty-one  millions,  while  their  value  by  the 
last  census  was  over  a  billion  dollars.  On  the 
Chicago  market,  horses,  from  1899  to  1904, 
increased  in  value  from  ten  to  thirty -five 
dollars  per  head. 

It  is  of  interest  to  note  that  the  national 
government,  under  congressional  appropria- 
tion, has  begun  the  work  of  establishing  an 
American  carriage-horse.  A  series  of  breeding 
experiments  is  now  under  way,  whose  object 
is  to  produce  an  entirely  new  horse,  so  to 
speak, — one  which  shall  be  peculiarly  adaptable 
to  the  needs  of  Americans.  It  is  intended  that 
this  horse  shall  be  the  foundation  of  a  race 
which  shall  stand  entirely  independent  of 
foreign  breeds. 

In  every  department  of  animal  husbandry, 
efforts  are  being  put  forth  to  strengthen  the 
older  types.  It  is  practically  in  the  period  of 
the  New  Earth  that  swine-breeding  has  reached 

212 


Dr.  S.  M.  Babcook,  inventor  of  the  Babcoc-k  test 


ANIMAL   HUSBANDRY 

anything  like  important  results.  The  years 
of  the  first  registrations  of  the  different  swine 
breeders'  associations  are  as  follows :  American 
Berkshire,  1875;  Standard  Poland-China,  1877; 
Central  Poland -China,  1879;  American  Ches- 
ter White,  1884;  American  Essex,  1887; 
American  Duroc- Jersey,  1890. 

But,  while  great  improvement  has  been  made 
through  the  introduction  of  new  blood,  per- 
haps the  greatest  improvement  in  the  life  of 
domestic  animals  in  America  has  been  that 
effected  through  what  may  be  termed  animal 
culture.  This  includes  not  only  a  strengthen- 
ing of  the  stock  through  the  most  careful 
selection  in  breeding,  so  that  new  combina- 
tions and  crosses  may  be  made  to  produce 
better  cattle,  better  sheep,  better  poultry  than 
any  that  preceded,  but  the  most  painstaking 
and  systematic  experiments  in  feeding.  Feed- 
ing and  breeding  lie  at  the  base  of  the  progress 
of  animal  husbandry  in  the  period  of  the  New 
Earth.  This  feeding  has  been  two -fold  in 
object :  to  produce  better  animals,  stronger, 
more  profitable  on  the  block  or  on  the  farm, 
but  to  do  it  at  a  minimum  of  cost.  Waste, 
most  foolish  and  extravagant  waste,  has  been 

213 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

one  of  the  curses  of  farming  in  America.  It  is 
one  of  the  objects  of  these  feeding  experiments 
to  put  a  stop  to  this  waste  by  showing  that 
better  results  can  be  reached  under  new  meth- 
ods by  a  far  less  expenditure  of  money.  I 
know  of  no  way  in  which  the  practical  value 
of  modern  science, — I  had  almost  said  modern 
sensible  science,  for  there  is  a  so-called  science 
which  busies  itself  with  things  which  are  only 
mildly  mystical, — can  better  be  shown  than 
in  these  great  animal-feeding  tests  which  have 
been  undertaken  in  the  latter  part  of  this  past 
generation.  Take,  for  example,  as  an  illustra- 
tion of  the  scope  of  the  work,  the  tests  under 
way  by  the  national  government  in  the  feeding 
of  horses.  Here  it  has  been  demonstrated,  after 
exhaustive  tests,  precisely  how  much  of  a  given 
food  is  assimilated  by  a  horse,  how  much  is 
wasted,  how  to  combine  rations  so  that  this 
waste  may  be  reduced  to  a  minimum  and  the 
horse  be  fed  in  the  most  economical  manner. 
It  is  shown  that  only  thirty-four  per  cent  of 
the  food  consumed  by  a  horse  is  converted 
into  energy  or  working  power,  while  the 
remaining  sixty-six  per  cent  is  devoted  to  the 
running  of  the  horse,  so  to  speak, — to  keeping 

214 


up  its  mechanism.  So  complete  are  the  tests 
that  it  is  demonstrated  that  twenty  per  cent  of 
the  energizing  value  of  the  oats  fed  to  a  horse 
is  used  up  in  chewing  and  digestion,  while 
experiments  show  that  by  keeping  a  horse  in 
a  stall  too  cold  for  him,  two  pounds  of  oats 
per  day  are  necessary  to  supply  the  waste 
caused  by  the  cold.  It  is  shown,  too,  that 
while  the  horse  makes  use  of  only  thirty-four 
per  cent  of  its  food  for  working  purposes,  it  is 
yet  much  more  economical  than  the  steam 
engine,  which,  at  the  best,  turns  less  than 
twenty  per  cent  of  its  fuel,  or  food,  into 
energy.  In  Paris  it  is  shown  that  the  largest 
cab  company  in  the  city  saves  two  hundred 
thousand  dollars  a  year  by  taking  advantage  of 
the  facts  developed  in  the  tests  of  food  values 
for  horses.  One  important  feature  is  the  sub- 
stitution of  corn  for  oats,  the  latter  proving  an 
excellent  food  for  producing  energy. 

Years  are  being  spent  in  some  of  the  experi- 
ment stations  of  the  United  States  upon  prob- 
lems of  animal-feeding,  with  results  that  are 
proving  of  large  economic  value.  How  to  pro- 
vide the  most  satisfactory  ration  at  the  lowest 
possible  cost,  and  so  avoid  the  well-nigh  crimi- 

215 


THE    NEW  EARTH 

nal  waste  of  former  years,  is  one  problem ;  how 
to  produce  a  maximum  of  meat,  butter,  eggs, 
or  milk  at  a  minimum  of  cost,  is  another.  It 
would  have  been  all  Greek  to  a  farmer  of  the 
Old  Earth  to  tell  him  of  a  dual-purpose  cow,— 
one  that  would  produce  milk  and  butter  profit- 
ably for  home  consumption  and  at  the  same 
time  be  the  mother  of  calves  which,  if  desired, 
would  make  marketable  beef.  It  would  have 
been  quite  outside  his  line  of  vision,  too, — a 
study  recently  followed  for  some  years,  and  suc- 
cessfully, in  one  of  the  agricultural  colleges,— 
to  educate,  so  to  speak,  the  sheep  to  give  birth 
to  their  lambs  earlier  in  the  season  in  order  to 
give  the  farmer  early  spring  lambs  to  put  upon 
the  city  market  at  a  higher  rate  of  profit. 

It  would  require  volumes  to  describe  the 
many  different  ways  in  which  practical  scien- 
tific men  are  now  at  work  upon  the  problem  of 
producing  better  meat  products.  Take  an  illus- 
tration: In  Tennessee  the  growing  of  alfalfa 
has  come  into  favor,  as  it  has  in  other  states,  as 
a  desirable  food  for  stock.  The  State  Experi- 
ment Station  of  Tennessee,  after  the  introduc- 
tion of  alfalfa  began,  set  out  to  determine  the 
real  value  of  the  new  food — was  it  any  better 

216 


ANIMAL   HUSBANDRY 

than  the  old  and,  if  better,  could  it  be  produced 
as  economically?  It  was  shown,  after  exhaus- 
tive experiments,  that  alfalfa,  cow-peas,  and 
other  similar  leguminous  plants  could  be  sub- 
stituted for  other  and  more  expensive  concen- 
trated foods  without  loss  in  product  and  at 
reduced  expense.  Careful  and  systematic  feed- 
ing tests  were  carried  on  and  accurate  records 
kept.  It  was  shown  that,  with  alfalfa  hay  at 
$10  a  ton  and  wheat  bran  at  $20  a  ton,  the 
saving  effected  by  substituting  alfalfa  for  wheat 
bran  would  be  $2.80  for  every  one  hundred 
pounds  of  butter  made  and  19.8  cents  for  every 
one  hundred  pounds  of  milk.  It  was  also 
shown,  among  other  things,  that  a  ton  of  alfalfa 
or  pea  hay  could  be  produced  at  a  cost  of  from 
$3  to  $5,  while  wheat  bran  would  cost  from 
$20  to  $25  per  ton. 

In  a  number  of  states,  the  experiment  sta- 
tions have  conducted  experiments  in  the  feed- 
ing of  beet  molasses  and  beet  pulp  to  sheep 
and  steers,  materials  hitherto  considered  as 
waste.  The  beet  pulp  has  proven  an  excellent 
food  and  much  cheaper  than  the  feed  usually 
given.  At  the  Utah  Station  one  hundred 
pounds'  increase  in  a  test  with  a  lot  of  steers, 

217 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

on  a  full  ration  of  grain,  cost  $4.93;  the  same 
increase  in  weight  on  another  lot  on  a  full 
ration  of  corn,  grain  and  pulp,  cost  $3.98, 
nearly  a  dollar  less.  Thousands  of  sheep  and 
steers  have  been  fed  at  one  sugar  factory  in 
Utah  on  the  pulp,  which  provided  a  profitable 
food. 

In  Illinois,  where  nearly  or  quite  four  thou- 
sand farmers  are  extensively  engaged  in  beef 
production,  from  200,000  to  300,000  cattle  are 
marketed  each  year.  It  is  shown  that  by  tak- 
ing advantage  of  the  more  improved  methods 
of  feeding  stock,  based  upon  a  scientific  knowl- 
edge of  foods  and  food  values,  an  addition  in 
value  of  considerably  over  one  dollar  per  head 
can  be  effected,  resulting  in  a  net  annual  gain 
in  this  state  alone  of  over  two  million  five 
hundred  thousand  dollars.  As  an  illustration 
of  the  thoroughness  of  the  investigations  car- 
ried on  in  this  line  under  the  stimulus  of  the 
activities  of  the  New  Earth,  it  may  be  noted 
that  the  Illinois  Station  undertook  to  find  out 
just  what  the  farmers  were  doing  in  this  and 
adjoining  states  in  the  way  of  producing  beef. 
A  list  of  one  hundred  questions,  covering  every 
department  of  animal  husbandry  as  it  applies 

218 


ANIMAL   HUSBANDRY 

to  the  farm,  was  sent  out  to  six  thousand 
cattle  feeders.  The  replies  received,  when  tab- 
ulated, showed  that  they  covered  experiences 
of  over  one  thousand  one  hundred  men  with  a 
combined  experience  in  cattle-raising  of  more 
than  fourteen  thousand  years,  during  which 
time  they  had  fed  nearly  a  million  and  a  half 
cattle.  Two  significant  conclusions  were  drawn 
from  the  investigation, — that  the  farmers  real- 
ized the  need  of  better  blood  in  their  herds, 
and  the  necessity  for  more  intelligent  use  of 
feeds. 

The  Storrs  Experiment  Station  in  Connect- 
icut has  taken  up  the  subject  of  the  amount  of 
protein  needed  for  the  rations  of  a  dairy  cow. 
Various  dairy  herds  in  the  state  were  visited 
by  the  representatives  of  the  station,  and  the 
dairymen  worked  in  connection  with  the  sta- 
tion in  keeping  a  record  of  the  feed  used.  A 
certain  ration  was  recommended  by  the  station 
and,  in  so  far  as  possible,  this  ration  was  used 
in  comparison  with  the  rations  that  had  been 
in  common  use.  The  results  reached  showed 
that  rations  containing  more  protein  than  those 
usually  fed  are  better,  while  the  value  of  the 
manure  obtained  from  the  more  nitrogenous 

219 


THE   NEW  EARTH 

ration  is  noted  as  an  important  feature.  In 
comparing  the  original,  or  regular  dairy  ration 
with  the  recommended  ration  of  the  station,  it 
was  shown  that  the  average  cow,  instead  of 
shrinking  in  her  milk  during  the  period,  as  she 
normally  would  have  done  on  a  uniform  ration, 
gained  appreciably  on  the  recommended  ration ; 
the  increase  in  milk  flow  amounting  to  1.29 
cents  per  cow  per  day,  which,  with  the  saving 
in  cost  of  food  and  the  increased  value  of  the 
manure,  made  a  net  saving  of  2.02  cents  as  a 
result  of  the  substitution  of  the  recommended 
ration  of  more  protein.  A  series  of  tests  were 
made  at  the  Minnesota  Station,  to  determine 
whether  or  not  steers  could  be  raised  on  the 
farm  in  competition  with  those  raised  on  the 
great  cattle  ranges  of  the  farther  west.  Calves 
were  selected  and  fed  suitable  farm  products, 
such  as  any  farmer  could  grow,  and  the  man- 
agement included  no  details  that  the  average 
farmer  could  not  follow.  The  results  were  very 
satisfactory,  showing  that,  while  the  initial  cost 
of  producing  steers  on  the  range  was  much 
less,  beef  could  be  grown  profitably  under 
normal  farm  conditions;  that  the  quality  was 
of  the  very  best;  while  it  was  clearly  shown 

220 


be 

I 


ANIMAL   HUSBANDRY 

that  the  farmer  could  get  better  values  for  his 
produce  thus  fed  to  the  cattle  than  by  selling 
the  produce  on  the  market. 

Other  stations  pay  close  attention  to  the 
values  of  commercial  feeding  stuffs,  for  which, 
sometimes,  extravagant  claims  are  made.  The 
Vermont  Station,  for  example,  made  investiga- 
tion during  1905  into  one  hundred  and  fifty 
kinds  of  these  stock  foods,  the  by-products  of 
oil  mills,  distilleries,  glucose  and  breakfast- 
food  factories.  These  were  tested  chiefly  for 
protein.  While  some  samples  were  wholly 
satisfactory,  many  were  found  short  in  protein. 
"The  gluten  goods,"  says  a  bulletin  from  the 
Vermont  Station,  "particularly  the  feeds,  are 
consistent  in  their  failures  to  meet  guaranties. 
The  shortage  in  the  protein  in  the  distillers' 
dried  grains  is  getting  to  be  perennial.  A 
large  proportion  of  the  oat  and  corn  feeds,  the 
output  of  the  oatmeal  mills  or  of  mixers,  failed 
to  meet  the  claims  made  for  them."  The  bul- 
letin makes  note  of  the  fact,  in  considering  one 
of  the  lines  of  feeds,  that  there  is  one  redeem- 
ing feature, — the  poorer  the  feeds  are  the 
better,  since  such  a  condition  will  tend,  in 
the  long  run,  to  lessen  their  sales. 

221 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

The  wide  diversity  in  interests  in  animal 
husbandry  will  soon  become  clear  to  any  one 
who  attempts  a  study  of  the  subject.  The 
work  of  the  practical  scientists  has  advanced 
upon  so  many  lines,  in  the  development  of  the 
industry  that  volumes  would  be  required  to 
describe  them  all.  Simply  for  illustration, 
what,  it  may  be  asked,  would  a  farmer  of  the 
Old  Earth  have  thought  had  he  learned  that 
some  public  institution  of  the  state  had  de- 
voted time  and  money  to  the  investigation  of 
the  subject  of  protecting  cows  from  flies,  and 
had  followed  up  this  investigation  with  an 
additional  expenditure  of  money  to  put  the 
results  of  the  investigation  in  print  and  issue 
it  broadcast  over  the  state?  Yet  out  of  this 
subject  the  Storrs  Connecticut  Station  has 
developed  some  thoroughly  practical  material. 
In  states  where  vicious  flies  are  abundant,  it 
had  been  believed  that  there  was  a  falling  off 
in  milk  during  the  "fly  season,"  due  to  the 
worrying  of  the  cows  by  the  pests.  Some  one 
started  the  manufacture  of  fly  preventives,  and 
a  long  list  of  sure-cures  followed,  The  college 
herd  was  divided  into  two  sections,  which 
were  alternately  treated  with  one  of  the  fly- 

222 


ANIMAL   HUSBANDRY 

removers,  which,  so  the  manufacturers  claimed, 
would  save  fourteen  dollars  in  cash  per  cow 
during  the  fly  season,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
comfort  of  the  cow  and  the  milker.  The  pre- 
ventive was  applied  with  a  spray.  The  result 
of  the  test  showed  that  there  was  no  gain  in 
milk  production,  no  gain  in  butter-fat,  while 
the  hair  of  the  cows  became  more  or  less 
gummy  from  the  application,  and  the  milk,  on 
a  number  of  occasions,  took  from  the  prep- 
aration a  peculiar  odor.  The  investigations 
showed  that  the  annoyance  to  dairy  cows  by 
flies  has  been  overestimated,  and  that  the 
benefits  from  the  use  of  proprietary  fly- 
removers  have  been  exaggerated.  In  another 
similar  test  made  at  the  Wisconsin  Station, 
one-half  of  the  herd  was  kept  in  stable  during 
the  day  while  the  fly  season  was  in  progress, 
the  other  half  of  the  herd  being  left  exposed 
to  the  flies  in  the  open.  The  results  of  the 
test  showed  that  the  cows  protected  from  flies 
by  being  stabled  ate  in  four  weeks  eight  hun- 
dred and  thirty-five  pounds  more  of  green 
feed  and  lost  one  hundred  and  thirty-three 
more  pounds  of  flesh  than  those  in  the  open 
exposed  to  the  flies;  while,  still  more  signifi- 

223 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

cant,  those  confined  decreased  sixteen  and 
three-tenths  pounds  in  milk  flow  and  one  and 
thirty-five-hundredths  pounds  in  butter-fat 
production. 

One  more  illustration,  as  showing  the  re- 
markable diversity  of  the  investigations  in 
these  days  of  the  New  Earth,  must  suffice. 
Certain  portions  of  California,  notably  within 
a  radius  of  a  hundred  miles  from  San  Fran- 
cisco, seem  peculiarly  adapted  to  the  produc- 
tion of  eggs  and  chickens,  particularly  the  for- 
mer. Near  the  town  of  Petaluma,  the  center 
of  what  is  said  to  be  the  largest  poultry  region 
in  the  world,  the  state  has  established  a  poul- 
try experiment  station,  where  experts  study 
the  diseases  of  poultry,  find  out  the  value  of 
poultry  foods  for  the  production  of  flesh,  fat, 
eggs  and  feathers,  investigate  questions  of 
sanitation,  and,  in  general,  give  scientific  and 
practical  aid  to  the  industry.  One  of  the  first 
bulletins  to  be  issued  as  a  result  of  the  inves- 
tigations deals  with  tuberculosis  in  fowls. 
This  is  a  serious  matter  in  Europe,  and,  though 
not  so  prevalent  in  the  United  States,  the  dis- 
ease yet  exists  extensively  among  many  large 
poultry  ranches.  One  rancher  lost  about  two 

224 


ANIMAL   HUSBANDRY 

hundred  and  fifty  fowls  out  of  a  flock  of  four- 
teen hundred  in  a  single  year.  The  bulletin 
issued  contains  a  full  and  clear  description  of 
the  symptoms  of  the  disease,  the  diseased  con- 
ditions to  look  for  when  the  fowl  is  killed, 
with  illustrations  of  diseased  parts.  Ways  of 
infection  are  also  noted.  It  is  shown  also  that 
no  known  remedy  exists  for  tuberculosis  in 
fowls, — killing  as  soon  as  found  affected  is  the 
only  alternative.  So  far,  there  is  no  means  of 
detecting  the  existence  of  the  disease  until  it 
has  progressed  sufficiently  to  produce  lame- 
ness, or  emaciation.  The  tuberculin  test  used 
in  detecting  the  disease  in  cattle  does  not  give 
positive  results  in  fowl.  The  bulletin  says, 
upon  the  important  question  of  danger  to  man 
from  tuberculous  fowl: 

"Tuberculosis  in  man  is  not  noticeably  prev- 
alent in  the  community  where  most  cases  of 
the  disease  in  fowls  have  been  found,  for  it  is 
not  frequented  by  consumptives  in  search  of 
favorable  climatic  conditions.  The  possibility 
of  the  transmission  of  tuberculosis  from  poul- 
try to  man  is  a  matter  concerning  which  it  is 
exceedingly  difficult  to  collect  evidence.  The 
fact  that  chickens,  when  eaten,  are  always 

225 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

well  cooked,  indicates  that  there  is  practically 
no  danger  from  that  source.  It  has  not  been 
proven  that  tuberculosis  is  transmitted  through 
the  egg,  and  furthermore,  most  eggs  are  well 
cooked  when  served.  It  does  not  appear, 
therefore,  that  tuberculosis  in  fowls  is  a  matter 
that  very  intimately  concerns  public  health." 

It  would  be  idle  to  attempt  estimates  of  the 
future  growth  of  animal  husbandry  in  the 
United  States.  That  it  has  now  reached  large 
proportions  and  stands  among  the  great  factors 
of  national  wealth  may  be  seen  from  the  fact 
that  the  total  value  of  the  domestic  animals  of 
the  United  States  at  the  last  census  was  very 
nearly  three  billions  of  dollars.  Of  this  vast 
sum  distribution  is  as  follows:  Neat  cattle, 
49.5  per  cent;  horses,  30.1  per  cent;  mules,  6.6 
per  cent;  sheep,  5.7  per  cent;  swine,  7.8  per 
cent;  asses  and  burros,  .2  per  cent;  goats,  .1 
per  cent.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  this  last 
relatively  small  per  cent  represents  nearly  two 
million  goats,  valued  at  over  three  millions  of 
dollars.  Nearly  all  the  live  stock  is  on  farms 
and  ranges,  though  6.7  per  cent  of  the  value  of 
all  live  stock,  or  $214,658,873,  applies  to  stock 
not  upon  farms  or  ranges. 


ANIMAL   HUSBANDRY 

Recent  statistics  place  the  number  of  swine 
in  the  nations  which  are  the  chief  producers 
of  that  animal  as  follows :  The  United  States, 
67,000,000;  Germany,  17,000,000;  Russia, 
11,000,000;  Hungary,  7,000,000;  Canada, 
3,000,000,  Spain,  2,000,000;  Roumania,  2,000,- 
000;  Poland,  Belgium,  Denmark,  the  Nether- 
lands and  Australasia,  each  1,000,000,  the 
United  States  thus  having  much  the  larger 
proportion  of  the  world's  supply.  All  but  four- 
hundredths  of  a  per  cent  of  the  sheep  of  the 
United  States  are  upon  farms  and  ranges. 
Since  the  period  of  the  New  Earth  the  aver- 
age production  of  wool  per  sheep  in  the  United 
States  has  increased  140  per  cent,  while  wool 
product  has  increased  300  per  cent.  During 
the  same  period  sheep  have  increased  in  num- 
bers in  the  United  States  67  per  cent,  which, 
taken  in  connection  with  the  situation  abroad, 
and  with  the  possibilities  for  the  extension  of 
sheep-raising  in  this  country,  forms  an  inter- 
esting situation.  Throughout  foreign  countries 
there  has  been,  curiously  enough,  a  falling  off 
in  sheep  production  in  the  same  period.  A 
recent  United  States  consular  report  shows 
that  the  flocks  of  the  world  outside  of  the 

227 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

United  States  have  declined  at  least  ninety- 
three  millions  since  1873.  The  report,  appear- 
ing in  September,  1905,  written  by  Consul 
Williams,  of  Cardiff,  Wales,  making  note  of 
the  fact  that  this  is  the  American  farmer's 
opportunity,  says,  incidentally,  as  to  the  causes 
of  the  decline: 

"The  world  is  eating  up  its  sheep.  Its  flocks 
have  been  declining  for  three  decades,  and 
that  decline  has  become  perceptible  in  so 
many  countries  that  it  is  regarded  as  the  most 
remarkable  agricultural  movement  of  our  times. 
A  number  of  independent  causes  have  coope- 
rated to  bring  about  this  result.  The  first  to 
be  noted  is  the  modern  method  of  studying 
Hebrew  history  and  literature.  This  has 
brought  to  light  the  fact  of  the  preponderance 
of  mutton  in  the  meat  diet  of  the  Hebrews 
from  the  earliest  times,  a  preponderance  that 
accounts,  in  part,  for  the  character  of  their 
civilization,  and  their  persistence  as  a  race. 
The  dread  of  tuberculosis  and  pleuro- pneu- 
monia in  some  countries,  and  of  trichina  in 
others,  has  led  to  the  substitution  of  mutton 
for  other  meats  by  several  classes,  especially 
those  influenced  by  the  lurid  accounts  in  the 

228 


ANIMAL   HUSBANDRY 

sensational  press.  The  high  price  of  beef  in 
recent  years  has  forced  many  others  to  make 
a  like  substitution.  But  the  principal  cause  of 
the  decline  of  sheep  has  been  the  movement 
of  the  agricultural  population  to  the  industrial 
centers  in  the  towns  and  cities.  This  class, 
with  an  already  acquired  taste  for  mutton, 
is  able  to  gratify  that  liking  to  a  greater  degree 
in  the  town  than  in  the  country,  both  on 
account  of  the  better  opportunity  offered  by 
the  open  market,  and  the  increase  of  its  pur- 
chasing capacity  by  the  higher  wages  paid 
in  the  towns." 

While  from  time  to  time,  for  one  reason  or 
another,  objections  are  raised  on  the  part  of 
foreign  countries  against  American  meats,  the 
fact  remains  that  the  overcrowded  nations  of 
Europe  must  depend  upon  outside  sources 
—largely,  perhaps  chiefly,  upon  the  United 
States — for  flesh  foods.  In  Germany,  during 
the  summer  of  1905,  under  a  meat  inspection 
law  of  unusual  stringency  aimed  at  exclusion, 
the  prices  of  meats  rapidly  rose,  and  the  sup- 
ply decreased  until  the  matter  became  of 
greater  national  significance  than  the  alleged 
dangers  from  the  foreign  meats.  The  whole- 

229 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

sale  price  of  live  hogs  advanced  under  the  new 
law  from  $21.42  per  two  hundred  and  twenty 
pounds  in  1900  to  $30.94  in  1905,  or  more 
than  fourteen  cents  per  pound.  Steers  advanced 
at  a  still  heavier  rate.  In  Berlin  fresh  pork 
advanced  to  twenty -four  cents  per  pound, 
veal  to  thirty-five  cents,  mutton  to  twenty- 
eight  and  one-half  cents,  beefsteaks  and  roasts 
to  thirty-five  and  one-half  cents,  putting  meats 
wholly  outside  the  reach  of  the  working  peo- 
ple. Many  serious  complications  followed,  not 
the  least  of  them  being  the  injury  to  dealers, 
over  thirty  meat  shops  in  the  city  of  Frank- 
fort-on-the-Main  alone  having  been  closed  or 
announced  as  about  to  be  closed  through  the 
destruction  of  their  trade  by  the  scarcity  and 
high  prices  of  meats. 

Russia  in  Europe  in  1905  had  only  24,000,- 
000  head  of  cattle  and  35,000,000  sheep  for  a 
population  of  over  90,000,000,  and  no  other 
country  in  Europe  had  so  large  a  number. 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland  had  only  11,000,000 
head  of  cattle,  6,000,000  hogs  and  34,000,000 
sheep  for  a  population  of  nearly  43,000,000. 
In  the  United  States,  during  the  years  when 
there  has  been  a  constant  decrease  in  Europe, 

230 


ANIMAL   HUSBANDRY 

there  has  been  a  marked  increase.  In  1850, 
the  value  of  all  the  live  stock  in  the  United 
States  was  a  little  over  five  hundred  millions 
of  dollars.  The  increase  in  value  from  1850  to 
1860  was  100.2  per  cent;  from  1860  to  1870, 
12.9  per  cent;  1870  to  1880,  28.2  per  cent; 
J880  to  1890,  46.4  per  cent;  1890  to  1900,  29.1 
per  cent.  While  the  value  of  the  live  stock 
of  the  United  States  has  now  risen  to  nearly 
three  billions  of  dollars,  and  while,  with  a  rap- 
idly increasing  population,  the  home  demand 
must  remain  large,  the  opportunity  for  Amer- 
ican meats  abroad  is  great  and  must  become 
larger  year  by  year.  With  increased  demand 
must  come  increased  prices,  and  the  vital  ques- 
tion now  before  the  producer  of  these  supplies 
in  the  United  States  is,  how  he  may  receive 
his  fair  share.  Rapidly  growing  up  in  these 
years  of  the  New  Earth  has  been  a  conscience- 
less monopoly  in  meat  products  in  America. 
Some  method  of  controlling  this  monopoly 
and  counteracting  its  brutal  rapacity  must 
speedily  be  devised,  if  the  animal-husbandry 
interests  of  the  United  States  are  to  escape  a 
danger  imminent  and  of  colossal  magnitude. 


231 


CHAPTER   XIII 

RECLAIMING    THE    EARTH 

A  LIMITLESS  sweep  of  sand;  a  hot  blue 
-^-^-  sky,  with  the  merciless  sun  traveling 
through  it  day  by  day,  with  never  a  cloud  to 
break  the  force  of  his  rays ;  here  and  there  a 
caravan  of  camels  toiling  steadily  along  or 
grouped  by  the  side  of  palms  in  a  beautiful 
green  oasis ;  out  on  the  wide  reaches  now  and 
then  a  strange  mirage  wherein  were  houses, 
and  ships,  and  fountains,  and  fair  streams  flow- 
ing between  green  banks  ; — something  like  all 
this  passed  in  procession  before  the  mind  of  a 
boy  as  he  looked  at  the  map  in  the  geography 
he  was  studying,  and  saw,  outlined  in  dots,  a 
wide  stretch  of  country  marked  "  Great  Amer- 
ican Desert."  All  the  boy  had  read  or  heard 
of  the  deserts  of  Arabia  and  Africa  he  pictured 
here  in  his  own  country,  and  wondered  would 
the  day  ever  come  when  he  would  be  able  to 
take  the  long  journey  across  this  mighty  desert 
on  the  back  of  a  rocking  camel. 

232 


RECLAIMING   THE   EARTH 

One  day,  when  the  boy  had  become  a  man, 
he  did  make  the  journey.  Hour  by  hour,  in- 
deed, day  by  day,  he  traveled  across  this  mighty 
waste, — not  on  the  rocking  camel,  but  behind 
a  powerful  engine  speeding  westward  by  night 
and  by  day  through  glorious  sunrises  and  sun- 
sets prodigal  in  their  wealth  of  lavender  and 
orange  and  amethyst  and  ruby,  past  distant 
mountains  splashed  with  yellow  and  red  and 
purple  with  here  and  there  a  lofty  peak,  white 
with  eternal  snows.  But  below  was  naught  but 
sand,  the  white  heaped-up  sand  of  the  Great 
American  Desert  of  boyhood,  drifted  here  and 
there  into  huge  dunes,  etched  up  their  dazzling 
sides  in  serried  layers  where  the  winds  had 
blown  as  they  blow  the  snows  of  winter,  here 
and  there  spread  out  like  some  vast  palace 
floor,  white  and  dazzling,  to  the  line  where  the 
blue  dome  of  the  palace  shuts  down  unpillared 
to  the  earth.  The  sands  were  there  and  the 
oases,  too,  but  not  the  camels,  nor  the  caravans. 
The  oases,  indeed ;  for  one  day  there  appeared 
in  the  far  west  a  faint  green  line  stretching,  in 
the  ghostly  twilight,  like  an  emerald  thread 
across  the  purple  sky,  at  the  base  of  a  huge 
mountain  towering  where  the  snows  rest.  Lit- 

233 


tie  by  little  the  train  drew  nearer,  and  when  an 
hour  had  passed  it  cut  through  the  green 
thread,  the  sands  slipped  backward  into  the 
night,  and  lo,  a  miracle!  For  suddenly,  mile 
upon  mile  stretched  away  noble  green  sweeps 
of  orange  and  lemon,  pomelo  and  lime,  olive 
and  fig,  and,  further  upward  along  the  moun- 
tain side,  grapes,  ripening  in  the  mellow  sun- 
shine still  aglow  on  the  upper  mountain  slopes. 
There  were  lovely  homes,  embowered  in  roses 
and  adorned  with  stately  palms ;  there  were 
little  towns  where  penury  never  stalks,  and 
further  on,  thriving  beautiful  cities  throbbing 
with  American  life. 

It  was  a  noble  prospect.  When  the  New 
Earth  began  it  was  a  sand-strewn  waste,  part 
and  parcel  of  the  Great  American  Desert.  It 
was  the  miracle  of  the  Spirit  of  the  Water.  It 
has  taken  but  a  few  years  to  make  these  oases, 
and,  though  they  have  proven  beautiful  to  the 
eye  and  fattening  to  the  purse,  they  have 
merely  dotted  the  desert,  and  millions  upon 
millions  of  arid  acres  yet  remain.  So  man  has 
begun  to  sponge  off  the  Great  American  Des- 
ert from  the  map.  It  is  now,  since  the  New 
Earth  began,  a  movement  in  full  swing, — the 

234 


RECLAIMING   THE   EARTH 

most  important,  in  some  ways,  among  all  the 
varied  activities  of  this  period. 

I  passed  along  a  palm-bordered  road,  one 
day,  where  but  a  few  years  before  sand  and 
stunted  chaparral  and  the  dreaded  cactus 
marked  the  region  as  fit  only  for  the  seat  and 
home  of  Desolation.  On  one  side  of  the  road, 
far  toward  the  blue  foothills,  spread  the  glossy 
green  tops  of  the  greatest  lemon  orchard  in 
the  world,  full  thirty  thousand  acres,  reclaimed 
by  the  water  impounded  in  the  near-by  moun- 
tains or  pumped  here  and  there  from  the 
rivers  that  run  upside  down,  those  curious 
California  rivers  flowing  through  the  sands 
below  the  sight  of  the  eye.  Beyond  the  moun- 
tains of  Mexico  in  the  distance  stretched  the 
blue  Pacific,  and  in  the  far  offing  you  might 
see  white  battleships  riding  lazily  at  anchor. 
It  was  a  rare  scene,  full  of  placid  beauty,  sug- 
gestive of  riches  and  content. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  road  the  trees  were 
dead,  their  bare  branches  stretched  toward  the 
great  hot  sun,  their  lifeless  roots  held  fast  in 
the  vise-like  grip  of  the  deep-baked  soil.  Acre 
after  acre  stretched  away  toward  the  circling 
mountains  to  the  north,  unrelieved  in  their 

235 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

barrenness  save  here  and  there  where  appeared 
a  leafless  tree  still  bearing  some  show  of  yel- 
low fruit,  a  tree  not  quite  dead,  and  struggling 
with  all  a  plant's  silent  heroism  to  ward  off  its 
doom. 

One  side  of  the  road  had  had  water  and  still 
used  it,  year  following  year,  and  it  was  a  gar- 
den ;  the  other  side,  sixty  feet  away,  had  had 
water,  had  profited  by  it  till  its  trees  were 
large  and  thrifty,  had  then  been  abandoned  by 
some  thriftless  owner ;  it  was  traveling  at 
steady  speed  back  to  the  desert. 

No  human  being  is  prepared  to  say  that  he 
knows  the  preciousness  of  water  until  he 
knows  the  desert.  It  is  more  than  a  precious 
thing,  it  is  a  great  elemental  force  second  to 
no  other  in  the  universe ;  indeed,  where  shall  its 
equal  be  found  for  wideness  of  scope  and 
influence  ? 

But  see  how  the  period  of  the  New  Earth 
is  transforming  those  waste  places!  Scarce  a 
generation  ago,  the  dotted  lines  of  the  Great 
American  Desert  encircling  the  haunt  of 
death;  today,  divided  into  rich  states,  while 
the  national  government,  realizing  that  the 
only  thing  needful  to  make  this  desert  blos- 

236 


•Hf 


RECLAIMING   THE   EARTH 

som  and  bear  was  to  take  the  waters  that  for 
uncounted  centuries,  coming  down  from  their 
homes  in  the  white  mountains,  had  gone  waste- 
fully  by  these  arid  lands,  harness  them,  and 
send  them  out  to  the  service  of  man,  has  be- 
gun the  greatest  reclamation  project  of  modern 
days, — in  its  scope  the  greatest  perhaps  in  the 
history  of  the  world. 

In  considering  somewhat  more  in  detail- 
though,  of  necessity,  in  condensed  detail — the 
factors  at  work  for  the  reclaiming  of  the  arid 
lands  of  America  during  this  New  Earth 
period,  this  project  of  the  national  government 
may  first  be  referred  to, — one  of  four  distinct 
reclamation  features  which,  all  told,  promise 
to  work  the  mightiest  transformation, — surely 
the  words  are  hot  overdrawn — ever  accom- 
plished in  this  line. 

There  are,  in  round  numbers,  fifty  millions  \ 
of  acres  of  arid  land  which  come  directly  with- 
in the  scope  of  this  reclamation  act  of  1902. 
It  is  the  purpose  of  the  government,  under 
the  provisions  of  this  act,  to  restore  this  vast 
empire  to  fertility.  By  the  exercise  of  sound 
common  sense,  this  national  reclamation  is  in 
no  possible  sense  paternal.  Paternalism,  at  the 

237 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

best,  among  childish  peoples  is  only  a  sorry 
makeshift  tending  toward  flaccid  mental  mus- 
cles; while  paternalism  in  a  free  republic  like 
our  own  is  a  national  sin.  These  fifty  millions 
of  acres  of  arid  land  will  be  reclaimed  by 
means  of  money  derived  from  the  sale  of  the 
government  lands  in  the  thirteen  states  and 
three  territories  in  which  the  irrigation  will 
be  introduced — Arizona,  California,  Colorado, 
Idaho,  Kansas,  Montana,  Nebraska,  Nevada, 
New  Mexico,  North  Dakota,  Oklahoma,  Ore- 
gon, South  Dakota,  Utah,  Washington,  Wy- 
oming. To  begin  with,  there  was  a  fund 
already  accumulated  of  thirty  million  dollars, 
soon  to  reach  fifty  million  dollars.  The  gov- 
ernment is  taking  this  money,  finding  out  just 
where  it  may  be  spent  to  do  the  most  good  to 
the  largest  number  of  people,  is  constructing 
reservoirs  and  digging  canals  and  distributing 
the  water  over  the  desert  places.  It  is  believed 
that  by  the  time  the  fifty  million  dollars  is 
expended  this  Great  American  Desert  will 
afford  homes  for  fully  five  hundred  thousand 
people. — homes  where  there  will  be  ever  at 
hand  in  soil  and  climate  and  water  the  means 
for  a  comfortable  living.  Still  further  to  avoid 

238 


RECLAIMING   THE   EARTH 

paternalism,  the  settlers  upon  these  lands — 
divided  into  farms  of  not  less  than  forty  nor 
more  than  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres,  and 
not  more  than  one  farm  to  one  person — will 
be  required  to  pay  back  to  the  government  in 
proportion  to  the  benefit  they  receive  until  the 
total  initial  cost  of  the  various  irrigation  pro- 
jects has  been  met.  The  money  will  then  be 
used  over  again  for  further  reclamation  and 
allied  purposes.  The  amount  of  money  each 
settler  pays  is  small, — twenty  dollars,  in  ten 
annual  instalments.  The  settler  must  be  a 
settler  indeed,  an  actual  bona  fide  resident 
upon  the  land.  Only  by  enforcing  this  provi- 
sion with  an  iron  hand  can  this  great  project 
become  what  it  should  become,  the  most  im- 
portant agrarian  enterprise  of  modern  days. 
The  situation  stood  as  follows  in  the  autumn 
of  the  year  1905: 

PROJECTS  NOW  UNDER  CONSTRUCTION 

Amount  set  aside 

State  Projects  for  beginning   .Acres 

construction    irrigable 

Arizona Salt  River $3,600,000      180,000 

Colorado Uncompahgre 2,500,000      125,000 

Idaho Minidoka 1,300,000       60,000 

Nebraska  and  Wyoming North  Platte 3,500,000      100,000 

Nevada Truckee-Carson 2,740,000      100,000 

New  Mexico Hondo 280,000        10,000 

South  Dakota Belle  Fourche 2,100,000       80,000 

Wyoming Shoshone 2,250,000      125,000 

239 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

PROJECTS  FOR  WHICH  BIDS  HAVE  BEEN  RECEIVED 

Amount  set  aside 

State  Projects  for  beginning   .Acres 

construction   irrigable 

California  and  Arizona Yuma $3, COO, 000        85,000 

Montana Huntley 900,000        35,000 

Montana  and  North  Dakota. . Ft.  Buford 1,800,000        60,000 

PROJECTS  APPROVED  BY  THE  SECRETARY  or  THE  INTERIOR 

Oregon  and  California Klamath  Falls $1,000,000  236,000 

Oregon Malheur 2,250,000  100,000 

Montana Milk  River 1,000,000  200,000 

North  Dakota Bismarck 15,000 

Pumping Buford-Trenton 550,000  18,000 

Washington Palouse  (postponed).  2,800,000  80,000 

Idaho Payette-Boise 1,300,000  250,000 

The  amount  of  land  to  be  irrigated  in  these 
initial  enterprises  is  one  million,  eight  hundred 
and  fifty-nine  acres.  It  is  estimated  that  the 
reclamation  of  this  section  of  the  arid  West 
will  increase  land  values  nearly  ninety  millions 
of  dollars,  with  an  annual  income  from  the 
lands  irrigated  amounting  to  nearly  thirty 
millions  of  dollars. 

The  possibilities  of  this,  one  of  the  com- 
manding acts  of  agriculture  in  the  era  of  the 
New  Earth,  can  not  be  estimated.  As  the 
years  pass,  the  occupants  of  the  new  region 
will  become  more  intensive  in  their  farm 
life,  and  thus  there  will  be  provision  for  other 
and  still  other  thousands  of  settlers,  all  of 
them,  even  unto  the  millions,  sustained  and 

240 


RECLAIMING   THE   EARTH 

protected  by  the  mighty  Spirit  of  the  Water, 
the  conqueror  of  the  Great  American  Desert. 

On  June  17,  1905,  the  third  anniversary  of 
the  passing  of  the  reclamation  act,  the  waters 
of  the  Truckee  and  Carson  rivers  in  western 
Nevada  were  turned  into  the  huge  canal  which 
had  been  constructed  in  that  state,  the  initial 
performance  under  the  reclamation  act;  na- 
tional irrigation  in  America  had  begun.  This 
unit,  as  it  is  called,  of  the  entire  system  of  all 
these  various  states  will  irrigate  over  three 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  acres  of  land,— 
desert  land  through  uncounted  centuries.  Nine 
millions  of  dollars  will  be  spent  before  this 
unit  is  finished.  There  will  be  ninety  miles 
of  main  canals  and  twelve  hundred  miles  of 
lateral  canals  and  ditches.  The  opening  was 
an  event  of  no  mean  importance.  So  the  work 
of  reclamation  goes  forward  by  the  national 
government,  the  development  of  each  unit  in 
each  state,  each  project  for  the  utilizing  of  so 
many  more  thousands  of  acres  of  land,  being 
hailed  by  the  residents  of  each  commonwealth 
as  a  new  inspiration  for  progress. 

Irrigation  is  no  new  thing  under  the  sun. 
Thousands  of  years  before  the  dawn  of  the 

241 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

Christian  era  it  was  in  practice  in  Egypt, 
primitive,  as  in  large  measure  it  yet  remains 
there  to  this  day,  but  yet  of  incalculable  value 
to  the  regions  that  border  the  Nile.  Irrigators 
in  America,  as  a  government  report  sets  forth 
after  an  exhaustive  study  of  the  subject  in 
Egypt,  have  little  to  learn  from  that  country. 
A  country  still  using  a  crooked  stick  for  a 
plow  will  hardly  serve  as  a  model.  The  feasi- 
bility of  irrigation,  its  possibilities,  its  rapid 
and  permanent  advancement  of  land  values,  its 
influence  in  providing  homes  and  sustenance 
for  steadily  increasing  populations, — all  this 
was  long  ago  established  on  the  banks  of 
Father  Nile,  while  the  great  Assuan  dam,  far 
up  the  Nile,  constructed  as  the  result  of  the 
investigations  of  the  technical  commission 
appointed  in  1894,  has  shown  conclusively  the 
importance  of  a  far  wider  utilization  of  the 
waters  of  this  great  African  river.  The  initial 
cost  of  this  Egyptian  dam  was  about  the  same 
as  will  be  the  cost  of  the  completed  Truckee- 
Carson  unit,  while  the  added  increase  in  the 
wealth  of  the  people  of  Egypt  will  be  at  least 
eleven  millions  of  dollars  each  year. 

When  all  these  dams  and  canals  in  all  these 

242 


RECLAIMING   THE   EARTH 

states  are  constructed,  when  the  raising  of 
herds,  of  forests,  of  grains  and  fruits  and  vege- 
tables is  under  way,  when  these  fifty  millions 
of  acres  of  desert  land  are  reclaimed  for  the 
use  of  man,  who  shall  be  able  to  estimate  the 
consequent  increase  in  material  wealth?  Irri- 
gation is  not  a  dream.  It  is  an  unanswerable 
argument, — unanswerable,  because  it  has  been 
answered  century  by  century  since  the  begin- 
ning of  man's  reign  upon  the  earth.  The  only 
wonder  is  that  national  irrigation  was  not 
sooner  commenced  in  America. 

Another  interesting  development  of  the  pe- 
riod of  the  New  Earth,  in  the  reclamation  of 
arid  soil,  has  been  brought  forth  in  the  state 
of  California,  which,  by  reason  of  its  climate, 
the  natural  richness  of  its  arid  soils,  and  its 
general  adaptability,  is,  perhaps,  the  most 
favored  state  for  the  prosecution  of  the  work 
of  reclamation.  With  the  period  of  the  New 
Earth  began  that  long  series  of  soil  experi- 
ments under  Prof.  E.  W.  Hilgard,  director  of 
the  station,  which  have  been  of  such  remarkable 
service  to  this  state.  While  welcoming  every 
effort  put  forth  for  irrigation,  the  soil  investi- 
gations had  for  their  immediate  aim  the  prov- 

243 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

ing  of  the  fact  that  cultivation,  and,  with  cul- 
tivation, a  knowledge  of  the  structure  and 
needs  of  the  soil,  was  not  less  important  than 
irrigation.  All  the  water  in  the  world  will  do 
but  little  good  if  allowed  to  run  to  waste,  or 
if  it  is  not  used  with  intelligence.  Professor 
Hilgard,  for  example,  took  up  the  study  of  a 
certain  desert  section.  He  made  the  most 
searching  analyses  of  the  soil  at  all  depths, 
determining  precisely  its  constituents  and  its 
needs.  In  the  midst  of  the  study  of  these  sec- 
tions, he  arrived  at  results  that  have  had  an 
important  bearing  on  the  cultivation  of  fruits, 
and  have  added  great  wealth  to  his  state.  For 
example,  he  proved  that  the  soil  in  the  arid 
regions  was  very  deep,  with  an  absence  of  sub- 
soils, showing  that  cultivation  might  reach  to 
any  feasible  depth,  and  thus  crops  would  be  able 
to  root  deep  and  withstand  drought.  Again, 
a  system  of  preliminary  tests  developed  many 
facts  both  as  to  the  chemical  and  physical  char- 
acter of  the  soil  itself,  and  as  to  the  soil  in  the 
main,  showing  thus  what  crops  were  best  fitted 
to  given  soils  before  the  crops  or  orchards 
were  planted.  Some  five  hundred  soils  are  thus 
analyzed  by  this  station  free  of  all  cost  every 

244 


Lambs  fattened  at  the  Wyoming  Station  on  alfalfa  and  native 
hay.  Students  are  also  given  object-lessons  in  dressing  animals  in 
an  attractive  manner. 


RECLAIMING   THE   EARTH 

year.  After  the  alkali  lands  of  the  arid  region 
were  proven  to  be  unusually  fertile,  the  further 
demonstration  was  made  that  they  were  ren- 
dered unproductive  solely  by  the  excess  of 
various  salts,  that  the  total  depth  of  these  salts 
was  usually  not  more  than  four  or  five  feet 
from  the  surface,  and  that  not  only  could  these 
salts  be  removed  to  large  degree  by  drainage, 
but  that  their  re-ascent  could  be  prevented 
simply  by  preventing  surface  evaporation — and 
this  prevention  was  effected  by  means  of  deeper 
irrigation,  called  deep-furrow  irrigation,  the 
surface  being  kept  dry  while  the  earth  around 
the  roots  is  moist.  Then,  again,  extensive 
chemical  analyses  of  the  waters  in  different 
portions  of  the  arid  regions  were  made  so  that 
the  orchards  should  not  be  irrigated  with  water 
which,  of  itself,  would  work  harm  to  the  land. 
Certain  portions  of  the  desert  had  what  is 
called  black  alkali,  or  carbonate  of  soda,  which 
has  been  very  difficult  to  combat.  It  was  found 
that  gypsum  spread  upon  such  soil  neutralized 
the  alkali.  Investigation  was  at  once  set  on 
foot,  and  a  deposit  of  the  gypsum  was  found 
by  the  station  within  the  borders  of  the  state 
itself,  a  never-failing  supply. 

245 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

Thus,  this  second  element  in  reclamation  is 
seen  to  be  of  large  importance,  for  it  has  re- 
sulted in  the  reclamation  of  land  now  worth 
millions  of  dollars,  in  addition  to  the  still 
greater  value,  present  and  prospective,  of  the 
crops  which  come  from  the  orchards  upon 
these  soils. 

Third  in  the  list  of  factors  which  have  come 
into  play  since  the  beginning  of  the  New 
Earth  for  the  aid  of  man  in  the  saving  of  these 
waste  places  is  arid  farming,  now  under  full 
swing  in  the  state  of  Utah,  as  well  as  under 
careful  test  in  other  states  having  arid  regions. 
Briefly,  by  this  is  meant  farming  without 
water,  or  with  so  small  a  portion  as  to  make  it 
almost  a  negligible  quantity,  together  with  the 
adaptation  of  certain  crops  to  these  soils, — crops 
which,  like  the  native  desert  plants,  as  the  cac- 
tus and  the  chaparral,  will  grow  with  the  very 
smallest  appreciable  portion  of  moisture.  The 
Experiment  Station  of  Utah  has  taken  up  this 
work  and  has  pushed  it  to  most  satisfactory 
ends.  In  Utah,  there  are  eighty-two  thousand 
one  hundred  and  ninety  square  miles  of  land, 
and  even  when  as  much  as  ten  thousand  square 
miles  of  this  shall  be  supplied  with  water, 

246 


RECLAIMING   THE   EARTH 

which  will  be  a  long  time  in  the  future,  there 
will  be  remaining  nearly  forty-five  millions  of 
acres  still  arid.  Out  of  the  eighty-two  thou- 
sands of  square  miles  in  the  state,  only  nine 
hundred  and  eighty- three  square  miles  are  now 
under  irrigation.  The  problem  in  reclamation 
here  has  been,  What  can  be  done  without 
water,  or  with  the  very  smallest  amount  of 
water? 

In  the  answering  of  this  question  some 
exceedingly  interesting  facts  have  been  devel- 
oped. It  is  so  strange  a  thing,  this  farming  in 
defiance  of  sun  and  heat  and  drought,  it  seems 
hard  by  the  land  of  miracles. 

When  the  discussion  of  the  subject  of  arid 
farming  was  well  under  way,  as  a  result  of  the 
preliminary  experiments  of  the  station,  the 
state  legislature  of  Utah  enacted  a  bill  provid- 
ing for  the  establishment  of  five  experimental 
farms  in  arid  regions  of  the  state,  and  it  is 
largely  upon  these  farms  that  the  work  has 
been  carried  on.  One  of  the  most  important 
problems  has  been  to  make  use  of  what  little 
water  does  come  in  the  way  of  rain  or  snow  so 
to  store  this  water  in  the  soil,  which  in  Utah 
is  of  unusual  depth,  that  it  may  all  be  saved  for 

247 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

the  uses  of  the  plants.  And  after  the  water 
was  in  the  soil,  the  next  problem  was  to 
select  such  crops  as  would  get  along  with  the 
least  possible  amount  of  water  and  yet  yield 
abundantly. 

The  actual  work  on  a  large  scale  began  in 
1904,  so  that  but  little  time  has  yet  elapsed  in 
the  prosecution  of  the  work,  though  a  certain 
form  of  arid  farming  had  been  carried  on  by 
intelligent  farmers  in  certain  regions  of  the 
state  long  enough  fully  to  justify  the  belief 
that  the  more  extended  work  of  the  station 
would  yield  rich  results.  Tests  were  at  once 
begun  in  careful  analyses  of  the  soils  and  in 
the  selection  of  drought-resistant  wheats,  oats, 
millet,  sugar-beets,  vegetables,  Kaffir  corn,  and 
so  on.  The  farms  were  desert  when  the  tests 
began,  covered  with  sage  brush,  the  very  antith- 
esis of  fertility.  The  transformation  wrought 
was  complete,  the  desert  was  made  a  garden. 
While  some  of  the  tests  were  not  satisfactory,— 
as,  indeed,  was  to  be  anticipated,  as  the  work 
is  essentially  experimental  at  the  start, — enough 
was  developed  to  show  that  the  arid  farming 
in  Utah  has  absolutely  conquered  the  desert. 
An  exhibition  of  the  products  of  these  dry 

248 


RECLAIMING   THE   EARTH 

farms,  held  in  Salt  Lake  City,  showing  the 
splendid  quality  of  crops  grown,  aroused  the 
deepest  interest, — it  was  an  object-lesson  in  the 
possibilities  of  arid  farming.  So  it  appears 
conservative  to  say  that  on  the  hundreds  of 
thousands,'  indeed  millions,  of  arid  acres,  which 
are  not  likely  to  come  under  the  influence  of 
direct  irrigation,  profitable  crops  are  now  to  be 
raised  in  absolute  disregard  of  the  sun  and  the 
drought. 

Fourth  among  the  significant  factors  in  the 
reclamation  of  the  desert  lands  of  America,  is 
the  remarkable  work  of  Luther  Burbank  in 
breeding  cacti  which  are  food  both  for  man  and 
beast.  Through  all  the  centuries,  the  cactus 
has  been  faithful  to  the  desert,  however  bitter 
a  foe  to  man  and  beast.  It  will  thrive  where, 
perhaps,  no  other  vegetation  will  grow,  and, 
taking  this  into  account,  Mr.  Burbank  spent 
many  years  of  his  life  in  breeding  a  cactus  free 
from  spines  and  thorns,  and  having  a  high  per 
cent  of  nutriment.  There  were  thornless  cacti, 
or  those  practically  so,  in  various  parts  of  the 
world,  but  they  were  not  of  the  type  he  wished, 
—not  so  rich,  not  capable  of  growing  as  he 
planned  they  should  grow  in  all  climates  wher- 

249 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

ever  any  vegetation  will  live.  He  chose  cacti 
from  various  portions  of  the  globe,  thornless 
and  with  thorns,  bred  them  together  in  a  well- 
nigh  interminable  succession  of  blendings  and 
crossings,  planted  the  seedlings  from  the  crosses 
by  the  tens  of  thousands,  and  from  these  thou- 
sands made  selection.  Year  by  year  he  repeated 
the  process,  in  order  to  secure  precisely  what 
he  wished,  always  selecting  those  which  came 
nearest  his  ideal.  While,  in  1906,  he  has  not 
gotten  the  cactus  in  shape  to  give  to  the  world 
as  it  will  be  given,  free  of  all  cost,  still  further 
work  being  under  way  upon  it,  he  has  demon- 
strated beyond  all  question  that  the  thornless, 
edible  cactus,  not  only  rich  in  food  in  the  juicy 
leaves,  but  with  a  fruit  delicious  to  the  taste 
and  also  highly  nutritious,  has  come  to  the 
world  to  stay,  to  help  redeem  the  desert,  to  be 
no  more  a  foe  to  man,  but  his  constant  and 
never-failing  helper. 

This  cactus  is  one  of  the  greatest  of  all  Mr. 
Burbank's  great  works.  It  will  grow  in  any 
latitude — the  temperate  zones,  the  tropics,  the 
arctics.  It  is  food  for  man  and  food  for  beast. 
It  is  to  work  the  transformation  of  the  desert. 

Take  these  four  great  enterprises, — national 

250 


RECLAIMING   THE   EARTH 

aid  in  irrigation,  the  solution  of  problems  in 
California,  the  introduction  of  arid  farming, 
the  production  of  this  cactus:  blend  them  if 
you  will  into  one  composite  in  your  mind,  and 
then  try  to  estimate  what  these  four  steps  in 
the  advancement  of  the  New  Earth  mean  to 
the  race.  Truly,  we  are  living  in  the  age  of 
miracles :  best  of  all,  they  are  practical  miracles, 
rich  in  service  to  mankind. 


251 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  FOODS  OF  THE  NEW  EARTH 

TF  any  man  more  than  another  should  be 
-*-  well  informed  on  the  foods  of  the  race, 
surely  it  is  he  without  whom  the  food  supply 
of  the  race  vanishes.  It  is  this  man,  the  tiller 
of  the  New  Earth,  who  supplies  this  food,— 
wheat,  corn,  rice,  meat,  vegetables,  fruits;  the 
whole  stock  for  the  sustenance  of  the  world 
comes  from  his  hand.  He  is  preeminently  the 
purveyor  of  the  race.  If  the  material  which 
he  provides  falls  below  normal,  the  race  to  a 
proportionate  degree  loses  in  vitality.  If  he 
maintains  the  integrity  of  the  elements  in  his 
products,  permanency  is  secured.  If  he  in- 
creases the  nutritive  value  of  his  food  supplies 
so  that,  when  prepared  for  the  table,  they  will 
afford  so  many  more  per  cents  of  heat  for  the 
body,  so  many  more  of  muscular  strength,  so 
many  of  vitality,  then  he  is  leading  the  world 
upward  in  the  betterment  of  his  crops. 

But  not   until    the   dawning  of  the   New 

252 


— 

cS 

1 
'I 


tc  E 


THE  FOODS  OF  THE  NEW  EARTH 

Earth,  not,  indeed,  in  some  quarters  even  yet, 
have  the  producers  of  these  supplies  had  any 
real  knowledge  of  what  food  really  is,  what  it 
does  for  the  body,  and  how  and  why  it  does 
it.  Nor  are  they  alone  in  this  lack  of  knowl- 
edge, for  not  until  within  the  last  generation, 
notably  the  last  half  of  it,  has  any  considerable 
portion  of  the  general  public  of  town  and 
country  come  to  any  adequate  idea  of  foods 
and  food  values.  While  the  study  of  foods  is 
not  yet  finished,  and  while  there  is  much 
divergence  of  opinion  as  to  food  values  among 
those  who  should  be  advancing  upon  the  same 
or  parallel  lines,  yet  great  progress  has  been 
made.  Indeed,  the  investigations  into  foods, 
their  nutritive  values,  their  possibilities  under 
new  and  novel  conditions,  as  well  as  the  inves- 
tigations into  the  subject  of  food  adulteration, 
—  which  adulteration,  strangely  enough,  has 
arisen  and  most  dangerously  persisted  in  the 
period  of  this  development  of  knowledge,— 
have  revolutionized  the  dietary  of  thousands. 
No  doubt  there  will  always  be  an  abundance 
of  more  or  less  harmless  fads  in  methods  of 
preparing  and  eating  foods,  but  out  of  the  new 
order,  nevertheless,  is  coming  a  greater  meas- 

253 


THE    NEW  EARTH 

lire  of  true  knowledge  and  a  stronger  race  of 
men  and  women, —  stronger  physically  and 
mentally; — the  bearing  upon  manners  and 
morals  may  indeed  be  not  less  pronounced.  I 
fancy  there  are  few,  on  or  off  the  farm,  who 
are  not  becoming  convinced  that  they  eat  too 
much.  Starvation  never  follows  moderation, 
but  ultimate  starvation  has  come  to  many  a 
worn-out,  over-fed  stomach  pushed  for  half  a 
lifetime  to  excess. 

I  question  if  there  is  any  department  of 
human  activity  in  which  men  are  engaged 
with  greater  zest  than  in  the  development  of 
the  knowledge  of  foods.  In  the  agricultural 
schools,  the  preparatory  and  training  schools, 
in  normal  institutions,  and  in  the  universities 
themselves,  everywhere  the  leaven  is  working. 
Scientific  men,  realizing  not  only  that  great 
additions  to  human  knowledge  should  follow 
researches  along  this  line,  but  that  out  of  the 
investigation  should  come  vast  good  for  the 
race,  have  followed  these  lines  of  work  with 
the  keenest  interest.  Today  the  results  of 
these  investigations  may  be  the  property  of 
the  tillers  of  the  soil.  They  are  practical 
results,  having  a  distinct  and  helpful  bearing 

254 


THE  FOODS  OF  THE  NEW  EARTH 

upon  health.  More  than  that,  for  out  of  the 
knowledge  now  made  available  as  to  foods  and 
their  values  comes  happiness,  too.  Of  all  men 
most  miserable  is  he  who  suffers  from  dyspep- 
tic torture,  that  cruel  legacy  of  ignorance. 
The  man  who  has  learned  what  to  eat  and 
why,  who  knows  why  certain  foods  are  harm- 
ful and  how  he  may  supply  their  place  with 
other  foods  just  as  nutritious  and  toothsome, 
has  found  a  road  that  leads  through  happy 
fields. 

How  thoroughly  practical  is  this  newer 
knowledge  was  brought  clearly  home  to  me 
one  day  as  an  agricultural  chemist  in  his  labor- 
atory was  proving  the  heating  power  of  a  vege- 
table,— what  it  would  do  in  the  way  of  giving 
a  man  fuel  to  keep  up  the  fires  of  vitality  in 
his  own  body.  It  was  a  fine  illustration  of  the 
many  ways  in  which  the  knowledge  of  the 
New  Earth  has  been  broadened  and  deepened. 
He  had  before  him  on  the  table  a  stout  tube 
about  eight  inches  long  by  four  inches  in 
diameter.  It  was  solid  steel  save  for  a  small 
platinum-lined  cavity  in  the  center.  In  this 
cavity  he  placed  a  little  brown  pellet,  looking 
quite  like  a  cough  lozenge.  It  had  been 

255 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

pressed  into  its  present  shape  by  means  of  a 
powerful  lever.  It  was  a  condensed  squash,  so 
to  call  it,  for  this  was  the  vegetable  he  was 
testing.  He  had  under  the  powerful  apparatus 
compressed  quite  a  portion  of  the  squash  into 
this  little  pellet.  Down  in  the  center  of  the 
bomb,  as  the  steel  receptacle  was  called,  was 
suspended  a  tiny,  black,  thread-like  wire  of 
pure  iron.  The  cap  of  the  bomb  was  screwed 
on,  and  the  bomb  was  placed  in  a  pail  of 
water  in  which  stood  a  thermometer  so  deli- 
cately graduated  that  it  would  measure  to  the 
one-thousandth  of  a  degree.  Then  the  current 
of  electricity  was  turned  on,  the  iron  wire  caught 
fire,  burned  down  to  the  pellet  and  set  it 
ablaze,  the  pellet  was  consumed,  and  the  heat 
made  in  the  burning  passed  out  through  the 
walls  of  steel,  warmed  the  water  and  was  meas- 
ured upon  the  thermometer.  It  was  not  much 
heat,  to  be  sure,  but  it  was  all  recorded  as 
accurately  as  though  it  had  been  a  thousand 
degrees. 

The  object  of  this  test  was  to  prove  just 
how  much  fuel,  so  to  speak,  there  was  in  the 
squash,  in  order  to  show  clearly  just  how  val- 
uable it  would  be  as  a  food;  for  precisely  the 

256 


THE   FOODS   OF   THE   NEW   EARTH 

same  act  would  take  place  if  the  squash  were 
fed  to  a  human  being, — it  would  give  off  the 
same  heat  that  was  measured  on  the  ther- 
mometer, and  the  body  would  have  made  use 
of  it.  The  steel  tube,  in  technical  words,  was  a 
bomb  calorimeter.  In  order  to  get  a  working 
basis,  the  scientific  men  established  what  they 
call  a  calorie.  It  is  simply  a  unit  of  measure. 
It  is  the  amount  of  heat  which  would  be 
needed  to  increase  the  temperature  of  a  pound 
of  water  four  degrees  by  the  Fahrenheit  ther- 
mometer, or  one  and  eight-tenths  by  the  Cen- 
tigrade. Or  it  may  be  measured  in  energy. 
Thus  the  one  calorie,  if  put  into  power,  as  in 
a  steam  engine,  would  lift  one  ton  a  foot  and 
a  half.  Just  as  in  coal  tkere  is  what  is  called 
latent  heat,  heat  in  reality  which  is  in  waiting 
for  the  fire  to  come  and  turn  it  into  actual 
heat  to  warm  us  or  cook  our  food,  or  run  our 
steamer  across  the  ocean,  so  there  is  in  foods 
this  latent  heat  waiting  to  be  given  out  into 
the  body  in  the  processes  of  digestion.  The 
calorimeter  gives  the  opportunity  of  measur- 
ing just  how  much  latent  heat  there  is  in 
foods,  so  that  it  becomes  possible  to  tell  of  any 
food  just  how  valuable  it  is  for  body  fuel 

257 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

In  another  room  in  the  same  building,  three 
times  a  day,  six  young  men  met  to  eat  their 
meals.  The  food  given  them  was  under  test. 
It  was  weighed  and  measured  with  the  utmost 
care.  One  young  man  had  one  kind  of  meal, 
that  is,  a  certain  ration  which  he  kept  through 
the  test;  the  others,  other  rations.  Every  par- 
ticle of  waste  was  accounted  for,  so  that  the 
actual  value  of  each  food  was  determined.  It 
was  quite  as  though  an  engine  was  being  fed 
a  certain  amount  of  coal  and  a  careful  record 
kept  of  all  the  refuse,  as  well  as  of  all  the  work 
the  coal  did  in  the  engine.  The  most  careful 
and  painstaking  records  were  kept  during  the 
week  the  foods  were  under  test,  and,  at  the 
end  of  that  time,  after  having  made  careful 
laboratory  tests  of  the  value  of  the  foods, 
determined  by  artificial  digestion  experiments, 
the  professor  in  charge  was  able  to  come  to  a 
very  clear  and  accurate  statement  of  jusx,  what 
the  different  foods  were  worth,  and  also  to 
determine  the  relative  value  of  the  different 
styles  of  rations. 

Still  different  and  more  extensive  is  the  test 
made  in  the  respiration  calorimeter.  In  this 
apparatus  the  small  cavity  in  the  steel  bomb 

258 


THE  FOODS  OF  THE  NEW  EARTH 

is  expanded  to  a  large  cavity,  so  to  call  it, — a 
room, — and  the  steel  walls  of  the  bomb  to  the 
copper-lined  walls  of  the  room.  In  place  of  a 
pellet  of  squash  in  the  bomb,  a  man  is  placed 
in  the  room  and  on  him  tests  are  made,  abso- 
lute, though  not  so  heroic  in  character  as  those 
which  burned  the  little  pellet  to  ash.  Still,  the 
test  made  is  precisely  as  accurate.  Out  of  this 
respiration  calorimeter  is  coming  some  of  the 
most  valuable  and  practical  information  which 
has  been  developed  in  the  period  of  the  New 
Earth.  A  man  is  kept  in  this  room  for  a  cer- 
tain number  of  days — say  a  week  or  a  fort- 
night. As  in  the  case  of  the  young  men  under 
test  referred  to  above, — though  they  went 
about  their  regular  work  in  the  open  as  usual, 
— full  and  accurate  data  and  records  are  kept 
of  everything  pertaining  to  the  man  in  the  cage, 
together  with  the  composition  of  the  foods  fed, 
their  amount,  and  so  on.  But  much  more  is 
done  than  this.  Not  only  is  every  particle  of 
waste  determined,  and  how  much  food  is  left 
unconsumed  in  this  waste  as  it  comes  from  the 
intestines  and  kidneys,  but  how  much  waste 
is  given  off  through  the  lungs  in  breathing. 
More  than  this,  too,  every  particle  of  muscular 

259 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

energy  is  recorded,  so  that  it  will  be  easy  to 
show  just  how  much  heat  the  man  is  throwing 
off  from  his  body  in  this  way,  for  with  every 
movement  of  the  body  some  heat  is  generated. 
In  the  room, — a  small  room,  seven  feet  and  a 
hah0  by  four  feet  in  dimensions,  and  six  and  a 
half  feet  high, — is  a  stationary  bicycle  for  exer- 
cise, in  case  the  test  is  chiefly  to  show  the 
amount  of  heat  developed  in  muscular  activity. 
Outside  the  room  is  a  delicately  adjusted  ther- 
mometer, so  sensitive,  indeed,  that  it  will  re- 
cord any  fraction  of  a  degree  of  heat.  The 
observer  who  is  keeping  the  record  on  the  out- 
side of  the  room  does  not  need  to  look  in  or 
to  hear  any  sound  from  the  man  inside  to 
know  when  he  rises  from  his  chair,  for  instance, 
for  the  act,  though  slight  and  unaccompanied 
by  any  special  exertion,  is  yet  sufficient  to 
throw  off  enough  heat  to  cause  an  immediate 
rise  in  the  thermometer. 

The  air  which  the  man  in  the  room  breathes 
is  tested,  also,  with  the  utmost  care.  It  passes 
in  to  him  absolutely  pure.  It  comes  out  im- 
pure from  his  breathing,  and  all  this  impurity 
is  accurately  measured  by  a  delicately  adjusted 
apparatus.  Sometimes  the  test  will  be  mus- 

260 


THE  FOODS  OF  THE  NEW  EARTH 

cular,  so  to  call  it ;  sometimes  the  man  will  do 
absolutely  no  muscular  work  while  in  the 
room  but  merely  be  passive ;  sometimes  he  will 
do  no  muscular  work,  but  will  give  himself  up 
to  the  very  severest  sort  of  mental  labor;  all 
this  in  order  that  the  value  of  the  foods  given 
may  be  determined  under  different  conditions 
of  rest  and  action. 

In  this  very  definite  and  practical,  as  well  as 
strictly  scientific  way,  the  sum  of  knowledge 
of  food  values  has  been,  and  still  is  being, 
immensely  increased.  The  work  in  this  line, 
which  has  been  carried  on  by  Prof.  W.  O. 
Atwater,  of  the  Storrs  Experiment  Station  in 
Connecticut,  in  cooperation  with  the  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture  in  Washington,  has  been 
of  marked  importance.  It  is  one  of  the  vital 
and  significant  advances  of  the  New  Earth. 

In  addition  to  all  the  important  data  as- 
sembled as  to  the  value  of  foods,  the  relative 
value  of  foods,  and  the  needs  of  man's  body  for 
foods,  Professor  Atwater  has  demonstrated  that 
the  law  of  the  conservation  of  matter  and  the 
law  of  the  conservation  of  energy  are  abso- 
lutely maintained  in  the  intricate  and  delicate 
functions  of  the  human  body,  that  no  particle 

261 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

of  energy  or  force  and  no  particle  of  matter 
is  lost  under  any  circumstances, — it  is  all 
accounted  for,  one  of  the  significant  scientific 
demonstrations  of  recent  years. 

At  the  Pennsylvania  Experiment  Station, 
a  similar  series  of  experiments  has  been  under 
way  with  cattle  kept  in  a  larger  compartment, 
but  managed  in  the  same  general  way.  The 
results  have  been  of  much  interest  and  value 
in  the  determination  of  the  relative  impor- 
tance of  stock  foods. 

While  food  investigations  have  been  carried 
on  in  a  more  or  less  primitive  way  for  the  last 
seventy-five  years  in  Europe,  and  for  a  lesser 
period  in  the  United  States,  it  is  only  within 
recent  years  that  important  work  like  this  has 
been  undertaken.  Professor  Atwater  notes  the 
fact  that  the  chemical  substances  of  which 
the  body  is  composed  are  very  similar  to  those 
of  the  foods  which  nourish  the  body.  Here, 
again,  the  man  of  the  New  Earth  may  discover 
a  remarkable  likeness  between  himself  and  the 
raw  material  which  he  provides  for  the  support 
of  the  race,  just  as  he  could  discover  marked 
likenesses  between  himself  and  the  plant-life 
about  him.  Four  compounds  at  least  are  in- 

262 


THL  FOODS  OF  THE  NEW  EARTH 

dispensable  in  his  body  and  in  his  foods,  just 
as  there  was  a  fundamental  quartette  at  the 
basis  of  the  harmony  of  plant-life.  These  four 
are  protein,  which  is  the  nitrogenous  com- 
pound in  foods, — the  lean  of  meats,  the  white 
of  eggs,  the  gluten  of  wheat,  and  so  on,  which 
go  to  make  up  the  muscular  portion  of  the 
body;  the  carbohydrates,  which  include  the 
starches  and  sugars,  affording  energy  or  power, 
— fuel  as  it  may  be  called ;  the  fats,  which  are 
found  in  meats,  fish,  butter  and  the  like,  and 
to  some  extent  in  vegetables,  noticeably  large 
in  the  olive  and  cotton  seed,  which  afford  a 
more  concentrated  fuel ;  and,  lastly,  the  mineral 
matter  which  goes  to  make  up  the  skeleton  or 
framework  of  the  body.  The  protein  builds 
up  and  repairs ;  for,  in  so  complicated  a  ma- 
chine as  that  of  the  human  body,  run  at  such 
high  tension  for  so  many  years  without  stop- 
ping, there  must,  of  necessity,  be  breakdowns 
and  wastage,  while,  at  the  same  time,  the 
protein  adds  to  the  fuel  supply.  The  fats  and 
the  starches  when  burned  up  in  the  body,  just 
as  the  pellet  of  squash  was  burned  up  in  the 
bomb,  provide  heat  and  power  alone.  Fat  is 
formed  in  the  body,  too,  and  it  serves  as  a 

263 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

source  of  stored-up  fuel  against  a  day  of  dis- 
ease or  sickness.  In  the  words  of  Professor 
Atwater,  the  differences  between  the  material 
taken  into  the  body  by  the  man  who  is  in  the 
test,  and  the  material  given  off  from  his  body 
during  the  test,  is  the  balance  of  matter — it 
shows  whether  or  not  the  body  is  gaining  or 
losing  material;  while  the  difference  between 
the  energy  of  the  food  he  eats  and  the  energy 
given  off  from  the  body  as  heat  and  muscular 
work  and  waste,  is  the  balance  of  energy,  and 
should  equal  the  energy  of  the  body  material 
gained  or  lost.  The  following  table,  though 
somewhat  extended,  is  of  interest  in  this  con- 
nection. It  is  taken  from  the  bulletin  of  the 
United  States  Department  of  Agriculture  on 
the  subject,  and  gives,  in  a  condensed  form,  the 
now  generally  accepted  facts  in  Europe  and 
America  as  to  the  nutritive  value  of  foods, 
their  waste,  their  chief  constituents,  and  their 
fuel  value  per  pound  of  material  in  calories.  It 
will  be  found  that  this  table  will  warrant  ex- 
tended consideration  on  the  part  of  any  one  in- 
terested in  the  sensible  study  of  foods  and  food 
values,  and  will  prove  valuable  for  reference 
when  any  particular  food  is  under  discussion : 

264 


THE   FOODS   OF   THE   NEW   EARTH 


AVERAGE  COMPOSITION  OF  COMMON  AMERICAN  FOOD  PRODUCTS 


FOOD  MATERIALS 
(as  purchased) 

Refuse 

1 

Protein 

15 

* 

Carbohy- 
drates 

•s 

•< 

-J? 
«  a  o 
a>fk 
n 

ANIMAL  FOOD 
Beef,  fresh- 
Chuck  ribs  
Flank  
Loin  

Per 

cent 
16.3 
10.2 
13.3 
12.7 

Per 

cent 
52.6 
54.0 
52.5 
52.4 

Per 

cent 
15.5 
17.0 
16.1 
19.1 

Per 

cent 
15.0 
19.0 
17.5 
17.9 

Per 

cent 

Per 
ct. 
0.8 

.7 
.9 
8 

Calo- 
ries 
910 
1,105 
1,025 
1,100 

Sirloin  steak  
Neck  
Ribs  

12.8 
27.6 
208 

54.0 
45.9 
43.8 

16.5 
14.5 
13.9 

16.1 
11.9 
21.2 

.9 

.7 

7 

975 
1,165 
1,135 

Rib  rolls  

63.9 

19.3 

16.7 

9 

1,055 

Round  
Rump  
Shank,  fore  

7.2 

20.7 
36.9 

60.7 
45.0 
42.9 

19.0 
13.8 
12.8 

12.8 
20.2 
7.3 

.... 

1.0 
.7 
6 

890 
1,090 
545 

Shoulder  and  clod  
Fore  quarter  
Hind  quarter  
Beef,  corned,  canned,  pickled  and 
dried- 
Corned  beef  
Tongue,  pickled  
Dried,  salted  and  smoked  

16.4 

18.7 
15.7 

8.4 
6.0 
4.7 

56.8 
49.1 
50.4 

49.2 
58.9 
53.7 

16.4 
14.5 
15.4 

14.3 

11.9 
26.4 

9.8 
17.5 
18.3 

23.8 
19.2 
6.9 

.9 
,7 
.7 

4.6 
4.3 

89 

715 
995 
1,045 

1,245 
1,010 
790 

Canned  boiled  beef  
Canned  corned  beef  
Veal- 
Breast  

21.3 

51.8 
51.8 

52.0 

25.5 
26.3 

15.4 

22.5 
18.7 

11.0 

1.3 
4.0 

8 

1,410 
1,270 

745 

Leg  
Leg  cutlets  
Fore  quarter  
Hind  quarter  
Mutton- 
Flank  
Leg,  hind  
Loin  chops  
Fore  quarter  

14.2 
3.4 
24.5 
20.7 

9.9 
18.4 
16.0 
21.2 

60.1 
68.3 
54.2 
56.2 

39.0 
51.2 
42.0 
41.6 

15.5 
20.1 
15.1 
16.2 

13.8 
15.1 
13.5 
12.3 

7.9 
7.5 
6.0 
6.6 

36.9 
14.7 
28.3 
24.5 

.9 
1.0 
.7 
.8 

.6 

.8 
.7 
7 

625 
695 
535 
580 

1,770 
890 
1,415 
1,235 

Hind  quarter,  without  tallow  
Lamb- 
Breast  
Leg,  hind  

17.2 

19.1 
174 

45.4 

45.5 
52.9 

13.8 

15.4 
159 

23.2 

19.1 
13.6 

.7 

.8 

| 

1,210 

1,075 
860 

Pork,  fresh- 
Ham  
Loin  chops  
Shoulder  
Tenderloin  
Pork,  salted,  cured  and  pickled- 
Ham,  smoked  
Shoulder,  smoked  
Salt  pork  
Bacon,  smoked  

10.7 
19.7 
12.4 

13.6 
18.2 

'V.7 

48.0 
41.8 
44.9 
66.5 

34.8 
36.8 
7.9 
17.4 

13.5 
13.4 
12.0 
18.9 

14.2 
13.0 
1.9 
9.1 

25.9 
24.2 
29.8 
13.0 

33.4 
26.6 
86.2 
62.2 

•••• 

.8 

.8 
.7 
1.0 

4.2 
5.5 
39 
4.1 

1,320 
1,245 
1,450 
895 

1,635 
1,335 
3,555 
2.715 

265 


THE    NEW   EARTH 


AVERAGE  COMPOSITION  OF  COMMON  AMERICAN  FOOD  PRODUCTS 
continued 


FOOD  MATERIALS 
(as  purchased) 

Refuse 

b 
<p 

• 
* 

Protein 

3 

fe 

Carbohy- 
drates 

A 

•5 

11: 

*®  s  s 

c* 

ANIMAL  FOOD,  continued 

Sausage  — 
Bologna  
Pork  

Per 

cent 
3.3 

Per 

cent 
55.2 
39.8 

Per 

cent 
18.2 
13  0 

Per 

cent 
19.7 
44  2 

Per 

cent 

'i'i 

Per 
ct. 
3.8 
22 

Calo- 
ries 
1,155 
2  075 

Frankfort  

57.2 

19  6 

186 

1  1 

3  4 

1  155 

Soups  — 
Celery,  cream  of  

886 

21 

28 

5.0 

1  5 

235 

Beef  

92.9 

4  4 

.4 

1.1 

1  *> 

120 

Meat  stew  

84.5 

4.6 

4.3 

5.5 

1  1 

365 

Tomato  

90  0 

1  8 

1  i 

5  6 

1  5 

185 

Poultry  — 
Chicken,  broilers  
Fowls  
Goose  
Turkey  

41.6 
25.9 
17.6 
22.7 

43.7 
47.1 
38.5 
42.4 

12.8 
13.7 
13.4 
16.1 

1.4 
12.3 
29.8 
18.4 

.7 
.7 

.7 
8 

305 
765 
1,475 
1  060 

Fish- 
Cod,  dressed  
Halibut,  steaks  or  sections  
Mackerel,  whole  
Perch,  yellow  dressed  
Shad,  whole  
Shad,  roe  

29.9 
17.7 
44.7 
35.1 
50.1 

58.5 
61.9 
40.4 
50.7 
35.2 
71.2 

11.1 
15.3 
10.2 
12.8 
9.4 
209 

.2 
4.4 
4.2 
.7 
4.8 
38 

26 

.8 
.9 
.7 
.9 

.7 
1  •> 

220 
475 
370 
275 
380 
600 

Fish,  preserved  — 
Cod,  salt  
Herring,  smoked  
Fish,  canned- 
Salmon  
Sardines  
Shellfish- 
Oysters,  "solids"  

24.9 
44.4 

*5".6 

40.2 
19.2 

63.5 
53.6 

88  3 

16.0 
20.5 

21.8 
23.7 

6  0 

.4 
8.8 

12.1 
12.1 

1  3 

3  3 

18.5 
7.4 

2.6 

5.3 

1  1 

325 

755 

915 
950 

225 

Clams  
Crabs  

524 

80.8 
36  7 

10.6 
7  9 

1.1 

9 

5.2 
6 

2.3 
1  5 

340 
200 

Lobsters  

61.7 

30  7 

59 

7 

.2 

8 

145 

Eggs  —  Hens'  eggs  
Dairy  products,  etc.  — 
Butter  
Whole  milk  

tll.2 

65.5 

11.0 
870 

13.1 

1.0 
3  3 

9.3 

85.0 
4  0 

"5"  6 

0.9 

3.0 

7 

635 

3,410 
310 

Skim  milk  

90  5 

3  4 

.3 

5  1 

7 

165 

Buttermilk  

91  0 

30 

.5 

4  8 

7 

160 

Condensed  milk  

26.9 

8.8 

8.3 

54.1 

1  9 

1,430 

Cream   

740 

25 

18.5 

4  5 

5 

865 

Cheese,  Cheddar  

27.4 

27.7 

36.8 

4.1 

4  0 

2  075 

Cheese,  full  cream  

34.2 

259 

33.7 

24 

?  8 

1  885 

*  Refuse,  oil. 
t  Refuse,  shell. 


266 


THE  FOODS  OF  THE  NEW  EARTH 


AVERAGE  COMPOSITION  OF  COMMON  AMERICAN  FOOD  PRODUCTS 
continued 


FOOD  MATERIALS 
(as  purchased) 

o 
| 

1 

$ 
£ 

Protein 

•8 
fe 

Carbohy- 
drates 

•s 

<1 

1^ 

•3  a  8 
§>& 

£ 

VEGETABLE  FOOD 

Flour,  meal,  etc.— 
Entire-  wheat  flour  

Per 

cent 

Per 
cent 
11.4 

Per 

cent 
13.8 

Per 

cent 
1.9 

Per 

cent 
71.9 

Per 
ct. 
1  0 

Calo- 
ries 
1.650 

Graham  flour  

11.3 

13.3 

2.2 

71.4 

1  8 

1.645 

Wheat  flour,  patent  roller  pro- 
cess — 
High-grade  and  medium  

12.0 

11.4 

1.0 

75.1 

*> 

1,635 

Low  grade  

12.0 

14.0 

1.9 

71.2 

9 

1,640 

Macaroni,  vermicelli,  etc  

10.3 

13.4 

.9 

74.1 

1  3 

1,645 

Wheat  breakfast  food  

96 

12.1 

1.8 

75.2 

1  S 

1,680 

Buckwheat  flour  

13.6 

6.4 

1.2 

77.9 

q 

1,605 

Rye  flour  

12  9 

6.8 

9 

787 

7 

1,620 

Corn  meal  

12.5 

9.2 

1.9 

75.4 

1  0 

1,635 

Oat  breakfast  food  

7.7 

16.7 

7.3 

66.2 

?1 

1,800 

Rice  

12.3 

8.0 

.3 

79.0 

4 

1,620 

Tapioca  

114 

.4 

.1 

88.0 

1 

1,650 

Starch  

90.0 

1,675 

Bread,  pastry,  etc.— 
White  bread  

35.3 

9.2 

1.3 

53.1 

1  1 

1,200 

Brown  bread  

43.6 

5.4 

1.8 

47.1 

f  1 

1,040 

Graham  bread  

357 

8.9 

1.8 

52.1 

1  *\ 

1,195 

Whole-  wheat  bread  

38.4 

9.7 

.9 

49.7 

1  3 

1,130 

Rye  bread  

35.7 

9.0 

.6 

53.2 

1  5 

1,170 

Cake  

199 

6.3 

9.0 

63.3 

1  •> 

1,630 

Cream  crackers  

6.8 

9.7 

12.1 

69.7 

1  7 

1,925 

Oyster  crackers  

4.8 

11.3 

10.5 

70.5 

?9 

1,910 

Soda  crackers  

5.9 

9.8 

9.1 

73.1 

21 

1,875 

Sugars,  etc.  — 

70.0 

1,225 

Candy*  

96.0 

1,680 

81.0 

1,420 

100.0 

1,750 

Maple  syrup  

71.4 

1,250 

Vegetables  t— 
Beans,  dried  

12.6 

22.5 

1.8 

59.6 

35 

1,520 

68.5 

7.1 

.7 

22.0 

1  7 

540 

Beans,  string  

7.0 

83.0 

2.1 

.3 

6.9 

7 

170 

Beets  

20.0 

70.0 

1.3 

.1 

7.7 

9 

160 

15.0 

77.7 

1.4 

.2 

4.8 

I 

115 

Celery  

20.0 

75.6 

.9 

.1 

2.6 

8 

65 

Corn,  green  (sweet)  edible  portion 

75.4 

3.1 

1.1 

19.7 

.7 

440 

*  Plain  confectionery  not  containing  nuts,  fruit,  or  chocolate. 

tSuch  vegetables  as  potatoes,  squash,  beets,  etc.,  have  a  certain  amount  of 
inedible  material,  skin,  seeds,  etc.  The  amount  varies  with  the  method  of 
preparing  the  vegetables,  and  can  not  be  accurately  estimated.  The  figures 
given  for  refuse  of  vegetables,  fruits,  etc.,  are  assumed  to  represent  approxi- 
mately the  amount  of  refuse  in  these  foods  as  ordinarily  prepared. 

267 


THE    NEW   EARTH 


AVERAGE  COMPOSITION  OF  COMMON  AMERICAN  FOOD  PRODUCTS 
continued 


FOOD  MATERIALS 
(as  purchased) 

o 

1 

b 

a 

1 

Protein 

iS 

Carbohy- 
drates. 

A 

03 
*t 

J$ 

^3  «  « 

0  >  O 

m 

VEGETABLE  FOOD,  continued 

Vegetables,  continued- 
Cucumbers  

Per 
cent 
15.0 

Per 

cent 
81.1 

Per 

cent 
.7 

Per 

cent 
.2 

Per 
cent 
2.6 

Per 
ct. 
4 

Calo- 
ries. 
65 

Lettuce  

150 

80.5 

10 

.2 

25 

8 

65 

Mushrooms  

88.1 

3.5 

.4 

6.8 

1  ? 

185 

Onions  

10.0 

78.9 

1.4 

.3 

8.9 

5 

190 

Parsnips  

20.0 

66.4 

1.3 

.4 

10.8 

1  1 

230 

Peas  (  Pisum  sativum),  dried  .... 

95 

24.6 

1.0 

62.0 

?9 

1,565 

Peas  (Pisum  sativum},  shelled  .. 

74.6 
13  0 

7.0 
21.4 

.5 
1.4 

16.9 
60  8 

1.0 
3  4 

440 
1,505 

Potatoes  

20  0 

62.6 

1.8 

.1 

14.7 

8 

295 

Rhubarb  

40.0 

56.6 

.4 

.4 

2.2 

4 

60 

Sweet  potatoes  

20.0 

55.2 

1.4 

.6 

21.9 

9 

440 

Spinach  

923 

2.1 

.3 

3.2 

?1 

95 

Squash  

50.0 

44.2 

.7 

.2 

4.5 

4 

100 

Tomatoes  

94.3 

.9 

.4 

3.9 

5 

100 

Turnips  

30.0 

62.7 

.9 

.1 

5.7 

6 

120 

Vegetables,  canned  — 
Baked  beans  

689 

69 

2.5 

19.6 

?1 

555 

Peas  (  Pisum  sativum)  ,  green  .... 

85.3 

3.6 

.2 

9.8 

1  1 

235 

Corn,  green  

76.1 

2.8 

1.2 

19.0 

9 

430 

Succotash  

759 

3.6 

1.0 

18.6 

9 

425 

Tomatoes  

94.0 

l.J 

.2 

4.0 

6 

95 

Fruits,  berries,  etc.,  fresh*  — 
Apples  

25  0 

63  3 

3 

.3 

108 

1 

190 

Bananas  

35  0 

48  9 

.8 

.4 

14.3 

6 

260 

Grapes  

250 

580 

1.0 

1.2 

14.4 

4 

295 

Lemons  

30  0 

62  5 

.7 

.5 

59 

4 

125 

Muskinelons  
Oranges  

50.0 
27.0 

44.8 
63.4 

.3 
.6 

"*.i 

4.6 
8.5 

.3 

4 

80 
150 

Pears  

10  0 

76.0 

5 

.4 

127 

4 

230 

Persimmons,  edible  portion  

66  1 

.8 

.7 

31.5 

9 

550 

Raspberries  
Strawberries  

"56 

85.8 
85  9 

1.0 

9 

'.6 

12.6 
7.0 

.6 

ft 

220 
150 

Watermelons  

594 

37  5 

.2 

.1 

2.7 

1 

50 

Fruits,  dried- 
Apples  

28  1 

16 

22 

66  1 

*>0 

1,185 

Apricots  

29  4 

4  7 

1.0 

62.5 

?4 

1,125 

Dates  

10.0 

13.8 

1.9 

2.5 

70.6 

1  ?, 

1,275 

Figs  

18  8 

4  3 

3 

742 

*>4 

1,280 

Raisins  

100 

13  1 

2.3 

3.0 

68.5 

3  1 

1,265 

*  Fruits  contain  a  certain  proportion  of  inedible  materials,  as  skin,  seeds, 
etc.,  which  are  properly  classed  as  refuse.  In  some  fruits,  as  oranges  and 
prunes,  the  amount  rejected  in  eating  is  practically  the  same  as  refuse.  In 
others,  as  apples  and  pears,  more  or  less  of  the  edible  material  is  ordinarily 
rejected  with  the  skin  and  seedg  and  other  inedible  portions.  The  edible 
material  which  is  thus  thrown  away,  and  should  properly  be  classed  with  the 
waste,  is  here  classed  with  the  refuse. 

268 


THE   FOODS   OF  THE   NEW   EARTH 

AVERAGE  COMPOSITION  OF  COMMON  AMERICAN  FOOD  PRODUCTS 
continued 


FOOD  MATERIALS 
(as  purchased) 

| 

1 

Protein 

1 

Carbohy- 
drates 

•s 

£=' 

~Z  £  o 
3  FS 

fe 

VEGETABLE  FOOD,  continued 
Nuts- 
Almonds  

Per 

cent 
450 

Per 

cent 
2  7 

Per 

cent 
11  5 

Per 

cent 
30  2 

Per 

cent 
9  5 

Per 
ct. 
1  1 

Calo- 
ries 
1  515 

49  6 

26 

8  6 

33  7 

3  5 

2  0 

1  4RR 

86  4 

3  8 

8  3 

5 

4 

385 

Chestnuts,  fresh  

ie'o 

37  8 

5  2 

4  5 

354 

1  1 

915 

Chestnuts,  dried  

24  0 

4  5 

8  1 

5  3 

56  4 

1  7 

1  385 

*48  8 

7  2 

2  9 

25  9 

14  3 

9 

1  295 

Cocoanut,  prepared  

35 

6  3 

574 

31  5 

1  3 

2  865 

Filberts  

52  1 

1  8 

75 

31  3 

62 

1  430 

Hickory  nuts  

622 

1  4 

5  8 

25  5 

4  3 

'g 

1  145 

Pecans,  polished  

53  2 

14 

5  2 

33  3 

62 

7 

1  465 

24  5 

69 

19  5 

29  1 

18  5 

1  5 

1  775 

Pinon  (Pinut  edulit  )  

406 

20 

8  7 

368 

10  2 

1  7 

1  730 

Walnuts,  black  

74  1 

6 

72 

14  6 

3  0 

5 

730 

Walnuts,  English  

58  1 

10 

69 

266 

68 

6 

1  250 

Miscellaneous  — 
Chocolate  

59 

129 

487 

30  3 

2  2 

5625 

Cocoa,  powdered  

4.6 

216 

289 

37  7 

79 

2  160 

Cereal    coffee,  infusion   (1   part 
boiled  in  20  parts  water  )t  

98.2 

.2 

1.4 

.2 

30 

•Milk  and  shell. 

tThe  average  of  five  analyses  of  cereal  coffee  grain  is:  Water  6.2,  protein 
13.3,  fat  3.4,  carbohydrates  72.6.  and  ash  4.5  per  cent.  Only  a  portion  of  the 
nutrients,  however,  enter  into  the  infusion.  The  average  in  the  table  repre- 
sents the  available  nutrients  in  the  beverage.  Infusion  of  genuine  coffee  and 
of  tea  like  the  above  contain  practically  no  nutrients. 

Many  important  developments  have  been 
made  in  the  study  of  foods  during  the  life  ot 
the  New  Earth;  for,  while  these  foods  in  the 
main  existed  before  this  period  began,  they 
seem,  by  the  individuality  which  has  been 
given  them  under  the  new  order,  to  belong 
significantly  to  the  present.  One  of  the  most 
important  developments  has  been  in  showing 

269 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

the  folly  of  waste, — not  only  waste  in  discard- 
ing from  the  table  foods  which  could  be  used  in 
other  form,  and  waste  in  cooking  more  food 
than  the  eater  needs,  but  waste  in  the  foods 
themselves  as  they  go  about  their  service  to 
the  body.  Unquestionably,  one  of  the  most 
fruitful  causes  of  indigestion  and  all  the  long 
train  of  terrors  that  follow  in  its  wake  is  the 
eating  of  unnecessary  foods,  those  which  only 
burden  and  clog  the  system.  The  new  knowl- 
edge has  taught  how  to  avoid  this  by  select- 
ing such  foods  as  will  preserve  the  proper 
balance.  This  can  be  accomplished  without  in 
any  sense  starving  the  body  or  robbing  the 
taste  of  any  of  its  delights.  Meat,  eggs,  fish, 
fresh  vegetables,  milk,  and  fruits  contain,  to 
quote  again  Professor  Atwater,  the  most 
refuse  and  water ;  protein  is  most  abundant  in 
the  animal  foods  and  in  the  legumes,  as  peas 
and  beans,  and  occurs  in  considerable  quanti- 
ties in  the  cereals;  fats  occur  principally  in 
the  animal  foods,  while  carbohydrates  are 
found  almost  exclusively  in  the  vegetable 
products  and  milk. 

The  work  of  investigating  foods  has  pro- 
gressed beyond  the  importance  of  the  food  as 

270 


THE  FOODS  OF  THE  NEW  EARTH 

food,  into  the  realm  of  the  influence  of  food 
upon  the  health,  mental  as  well  as  physical. 
Since  the  general  period  of  which  mention 
has  frequently  been  made,  some  very  interest- 
ing and  valuable  data  have  been  accumulated 
as  to  the  length  of  time  required  for  the  diges- 
tion of  certain  foods  in  the  stomach  of  a  man 
in  health,  thus  leading  to  important  conclu- 
sions as  to  the  care  of  the  man  when  ill.  While 
much  of  the  digestion  takes  place  after  the 
food  has  passed  into  the  intestines,  it  is  im- 
portant to  be  able  to  determine  the  time  it 
remains  in  the  stomach.  Fluids  leave  the 
stomach  much  more  quickly  than  solids, — 
water,  or  other  common  beverages,  in  an  hour 
and  a  half,  boiled  milk  in  about  two  hours, 
while  hot  drinks  do  not  leave  any  more 
quickly  than  cold  ones.  It  took  from  two  to 
three  hours  each,  as  shown  in  an  extensive 
series  of  tests,  for  ten  moderate-sized  oysters, 
two  eggs — raw,  poached,  or  in  an  omelet — seven 
ounces  of  sweetbreads,  seven  ounces  of  white 
fish,  or  three  and  one-half  ounces  of  white  bread, 
cauliflower,  or  cherries,  to  pass  out  of  the 
stomach.  It  took  from  three  to  four  hours 
each  for  eight  ounces  of  chicken,  nine  ounces 

271 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

of  lean  beef,  six  ounces  of  boiled  ham,  three 
and  one-half  ounces  roast  veal  or  beefsteak, 
five  and  one-third  ounces  of  coarse  bread, 
boiled  rice,  carrots,  spinach,  radish,  or  apple ; 
from  four  to  five  hours  for  nine  ounces  of 
smoked  tongue,  three  and  one-half  ounces 
of  smoked  beef,  nine  ounces  of  roast  goose, 
five  and  one-third  ounces  string  beans,  or 
seven  ounces  of  pea  porridge.  It  appears  from 
the  investigations  that  the  materials  most 
readily  digested  are  those  of  soft  consistency. 
The  white  meat  of  chickens  left  the  stomach 
more  quickly  than  the  dark  meat,  or  the  red 
meats  of  other  animals.  Fresh  fish  was  more 
easily  digested  than  meats. 

Another  important  field  of  development  lies 
in  ascertaining  the  amount  of  the  foods  which, 
under  normal  conditions,  the  body  assimilates 
for  its  own  uses.  It  has  been  shown  by  recent 
investigations  that,  in  an  ordinary  mixed  diet, 
about  ninety-two  per  cent  of  the  protein, 
ninety-five  of  the  fats,  and  ninety-seven  of  the 
carbohydrates  are  retained  in  the  body.  There 
is  considerable  difference  between  the  amount 
retained  from  animal  foods  and  that  retained 
from  vegetables.  About  ninety-seven  per  cent 

272 


THE  FOODS  OF  THE  NEW  EARTH 


of  the  protein,  ninety-five  of  the  fats,  and 
ninety-eight  of  the  carbohydrates  in  the  animal 
foods  are  digested.  In  the  vegetable  foods  the 
amount  runs :  eighty-four  per  cent  of  protein, 
ninety  of  fats,  and  ninety-seven  of  the  carbo- 
hydrates. In  connection  with  the  former  tabu- 
lar statement  as  to  the  composition  of  foods, 
the  following  table  from  the  same  bulletin  as 
to  the  amount  which  the  body  retains  for  its 
uses  will  be  of  interest.  It  is  the  result  of 
much  experimenting: 


KIND  OF  FOOD 

Protein 

Fat 

Carbohydrates 

Digesti- 
bility 

Fuel 
value 
per  Ib. 

Digesti- 
bility 

Fuel 
value 
per  Ib. 

Digesti- 
bility 

Fuel 
value 
per  Ib. 

Per 

cent 
97 
97 
97 
97 
85 
78 

Calo- 
ries 
1.940 
1,980 
1,940 
1,940 
1,750 
1,570 

Per 

cent 
95 
95 
95 
95 
90 
90 

Calo- 
ries 
4.040 
4,090 
3,990 
4,050 
3,800 
3,800 

Per 

cent 
98 
98 
98 
98 
98 
97 
98 
98 
95 
90 

97 
97 

Calo- 
ries 
1,730 
1,730 
1,730 
1,730 
1,860 
1,840 
1,750 
1,860 
1.800 
1,630 

1,820 
1,820 

Eees  .. 

Dairy  products  

Animal  food  (of  mixed  diet) 

Legumes  (dried)  

83 
85 

84 
92 

1,410 
1,520 

1,840 
1,820 

90 
90 

90 
95 

3,800 
3,800 

3,800 
4,050 

Fruits  

Vegetable  foods  (of  mixed 
diet)  

Total  food  (of  mixed  diet)  . 

Perhaps  in  no  way  under  the  old  regime 
was  food  so  injured  for  the  purpose  to  which 
it  should  be  put  as  in  the  cooking  of  it.  Even 
today  it  will  not  be  so  very  difficult,  in  certain 

273 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

regions  of  the  country,  to  find  people  who  have 
the  very  best  of  raw  material  on  which  to 
work,  but  who  cook  their  foods  so  wretchedly, 
-I  had  almost  said  so  diabolically, — that  it  is 
almost  worse  than  not  to  have  been  cooked  at 
all.  The  investigations  which  have  been  under 
way  in  the  general  subject  of  foods  have  not 
ignored  the  all-important  question  of  the  cook- 
ing of  the  food  itself.  The  heat  changes  the 
mechanical  condition  of  food  so  that  it  may 
the  more  easily  be  acted  upon,  and  in  the 
cooking  the  actual  character  of  the  food  is  so 
changed  that  it  can  be  more  easily  chewed  and 
digested.  Unquestionably,  the  appearance  of 
the  food  upon  the  table,  and  the  general  ap- 
pearance of  the  table  itself  and  its  accessories, 
have  a  marked  influence  upon  digestion.  If 
the  stomach  blushes  at  the  sight  of  food,  it  is 
a  pretty  sure  sign  that  the  food  is  what  it 
ought  to  be,  at  least  as  far  as  outward  appear- 
ance goes ;  and  it  is  precisely  this  which  hap- 
pens when  the  food  is  appetizing  and  nu- 
tritious,— the  blood  rushes  pleasantly  to  the 
stomach  to  assist  in  the  digestion,  while  under 
untoward  conditions  it  remains  longer  away. 
All  through  the  country,  the  educational  in- 

274 


THE  FOODS  OF  THE  NEW  EARTH 

stitutions  which  come  nearest  to  the  life  of  the 
farm  are  teaching  the  young  women  who  come 
up  from  the  farms  how  they  may  prepare 
foods  in  the  most  attractive  manner,  at  the 
same  time  making  the  foods  more  digestible 
and  hence  more  strengthening.  The  United 
States  Department  of  Agriculture  has  issued 
a  number  of  bulletins  bearing  upon  the  ques- 
tion of  dietaries,  which  may  be  obtained  from 
that  department,  showing  how  the  food  of  a 
family,  for  instance,  may  be  prepared  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  facts  developed  in  the  food 
investigations  which  have  been  carried  on  in 
recent  years  in  different  parts  of  the  world. 

Should  one  wish  to  find  out  whether  the 
family  is  being  supplied  with  just  the  right 
amount  of  food,  and  just  the  proper  kind,  an 
interesting  and  profitable  home  test  may  be 
made,  based  upon  the  tabular  statements  before 
given.  Elaborate  preparations  or  paraphernalia 
are  not  necessary.  All  the  foods  coming  into 
the  house  should  carefully  be  weighed.  Say 
ten  days  is  set  apart  for  the  test.  Beginning 
with  the  initial  day,  the  amount  of  food  sup- 
ply on  hand  being  known,  the  food  should  care- 
fully be  weighed  out,  so  that  the  amount  used 

275 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

during  the  test  may  be  determined.  The  first 
table  before  given  shows  the  quantity  of  nutri- 
ents in  practically  all  foods  that  would  be 
used  in  an  ordinary  family,  so  that  one  may 
know  precisely  how  much  nourishment  and 
how  much  waste  there  is  in  the  foods  which  are 
being  eaten  during  the  test.  After  prolonged 
investigation  by  many  different  men,  it  has 
been  proven  that,  under  normal  conditions,  a 
man  at  hard  muscular  work  requires  one  and 
two-tenths  the  food  of  a  man  at  moderately 
active  muscular  work;  a  man  with  light  mus- 
cular work  and  a  boy  fifteen  to  sixteen  years 
old,  nine-tenths  the  food  of  a  man  at  mode- 
rately muscular  work.  Men  in  sedentary  occu- 
pations and  women  at  moderately  active  work, 
boys  from  thirteen  to  fourteen  and  girls  fif- 
teen to  sixteen,  need  eight-tenths  the  food  of 
the  man  at  moderately  active  muscular  work. 
Women  at  light  work,  boys  of  twelve,  and 
girls  thirteen  to  fourteen  require  seven-tenths, 
boys  ten  to  eleven  and  girls  ten  to  twelve,  six- 
tenths,  and  children  from  six  to  nine  years, 
five-tenths  as  much  as  the  man  at  moderately 
active  muscular  work. 

As  to  the  actual  amount  of  food  each  person 

276 


THE   FOODS   OF   THE   NEW   EARTH 

will  eat,  each  one  must  be  the  judge,  but  the 
foregoing  will  give  a  relative  basis  upon  which 
to  work,  while  the  tabular  statement  will  show 
the  composition  of  the  material  which  is  being 
used.  I  think  the  consensus  of  opinion  on  the 
part  of  those  who  are  giving  so  much  valuable 
time  to  a  study  of  this  subject  is  that  nearly 
all  men  eat  too  much.  It  is,  by  no  means,  the 
amount  one  eats  or  the  amount  of  nutriment 
in  the  foods  themselves,  necessarily,  which  de- 
termines the  food  value,  but  the  amount  that 
is  assimilated ;  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
sufficient  can  be  assimilated  for  all  bodily 
needs  from  considerably  less  food  than  most 
people  eat. 

We  may  not  pass  from  this  question  of  the 
foods  of  the  New  Earth  without  noting,  as  an 
illustration  of  the  comprehensiveness  of  the 
work  being  done  by  scientific  men,  a  series  of 
tests  carried  on  by  Professor  Snyder,  of  the 
University  of  Minnesota,  in  determining  the 
value  of  sugar  as  a  food.  Three  men  were 
carried  through  two  feeding  tests, —  one  of 
the  tests  with  no  sugar  in  the  meals,  one  with 
sugar.  Every  possible  care  was  taken  that  the 
actual  influence  exerted  upon  the  system  by 

277 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

the  sugar  should  be  ascertained.  Each  man 
ate  each  day  a  quarter  of  a  pound  of  oatmeal, 
a  quarter  of  a  pound  of  cheese,  three-quarters 
of  a  pound  of  bread,  three  ounces  of  butter, 
two  ounces  of  raspberries,  one  pint  of  milk, 
and  two  eggs.  On  the  days  when  the  sugar 
was  eaten, —  the  other  foods  being  identical  in 
each  case, —  each  man  was  given  five  ounces 
of  granulated  sugar  testing  ninety-nine  and 
two-tenths  per  cent  pure. 

The  amount  of  waste  was  accurately  deter- 
mined so  that  the  precise  food  values  were 
ascertained.  It  was  shown  in  the  tests  that 
there  was  absolutely  no  digestive  influence  of 
the  sugar  upon  the  other  foods ;  that  there 
was  no  waste  in  the  sugar  to  amount  to  any- 
thing, ninety-eight  and  nine-tenths  of  the 
total  energy  of  the  sugar  being  available  for 
the  body ;  that  the  amount  of  the  protein 
material, — the  strength-producing  portions  of 
the  food — retained  in  the  body  was  greater 
when  the  sugar  was  fed,  because  the  sugar 
helped  provide  the  fuel  for  the  body  and  thus 
there  was  less  demand  made  upon  the  protein 
material  from  the  other  foods.  It  was  clearly 
demonstrated  in  the  tests  that  sugar  is  too 

278 


THE  FOODS  OF  THE  NEW  EARTH 

often  considered  merely  as  a  condiment  to 
give  taste  and  flavor  to  foods,  while  in  reality 
its  main  function  is  that  of  nutrition.  It  was 
shown  that  sugar  as  a  heat-  and  energy-produc- 
ing factor  was  not  only  fully  equal  to  starch, 
but  that  it  is  more  readily  absorbed  into  the 
system  than  starch.  The  fact  that  confec- 
tioners notice  a  far  larger  consumption  of 
candies  in  winter  than  in  summer  goes  to 
show  the  demand  of  nature  for  the  heat  which 
the  sugar  in  the  candies  provides. 

It  has  been  proven,  also,  that  sugar  is  a  very 
powerful  stimulant  for  men  in  the  midst  of 
exhausting  physical  strain.  The  sugar  is  so 
quickly  and  thoroughly  assimilated,  and  has  so 
marked  an  effect  upon  the  energy,  that  when 
an  ounce  of  it  is  fed  to  a  man  whose  strength 
is  taxed  to  the  utmost  the  result  is  remarkable 
—it  enables  the  man  to  pull  through  the  crisis. 
In  one  case  a  man  in  the  midst  of  tremendous 
toil  and  nearing  exhaustion  was  given  a  sweet- 
tasting  substance  so  near  like  sugar  he  did  not 
know  the  difference.  It  had  no  effect  upon  him 
whatever,  but  the  moment  the  sugar  was  sub- 
stituted the  needed  additional  strength  was  his. 

This   single  illustration,  chosen   from   very 

279 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

many,  will  indicate  how  widespread  and  thor- 
ough is  the  study  which  is  being  given  to 
foods,  the  sole  object  being  to  add  to  the  hap- 
piness and  health  of  man.  And  there  can  be 
no  reasonable  doubt  that  along  with  an  im- 
provement in  the  dietary  goes  better  health 
and  a  prolongation  of  the  span  of  life. 

But,  as  the  scientific  men  of  the  New  Earth 
have  turned  their  attention  more  and  more  to 
the  study  of  foods,  unscrupulous  men  have 
exercised  their  ingenuity  more  and  more  in 
the  way  of  counterfeiting  and  adulterating 
foods.  And  it  is  very  interesting  to  note  that 
the  providing  of  means  for  the  punishment  of 
men  engaged  in  such  nefarious  practices  began 
about  the  same  time  that  this  revival  in  knowl- 
edge in  the  affairs  of  the  earth  began.  In 
1861,  the  national  government  initiated  such 
legislation,  though  it  was  then  in  the  nature  of 
internal  revenue  action,  placing  a  tax  upon 
goods  which  were  not  being  sold  for  what  they 
really  were.  A  few  years  later,  state  by  state, 
the  commonwealths  took  up  the  subject,  made 
investigations,  found  frauds  in  almost  every 
sort  of  food  in  the  market,  and  began  a  vigor- 
ous crusade  against  the  offenders.  In  the  last 

280 


THE  FOODS  OF  THE  NEW  EARTH 

generation  the  activity  in  this  direction  has 
been  greater  than  perhaps  in  all  the  previous 
history  of  the  country  put  together.  It  is 
another  curious  confirmation  of  the  fact  that 
this  period  of  which  we  write  is  one  of  the 
marked  periods  in  our  history.  While  evasions 
of  the  law  yet  are  known,  and  while  much 
depends  upon  the  strictness  of  the  administra- 
tion, the  laws  already  enacted  are  going  far 
toward  overcoming  this  dangerous  form  of 
criminality.  Recently  the  national  government 
has  taken  up  the  subject  of  food  preservatives, 
and  this  illustrates  the  scope  of  this  line  of 
work.  The  Bureau  of  Chemistry  of  the  De- 
partment of  Agriculture  undertook  the  deter- 
mination of  the  effect  of  borax  and  boric  acid 
upon  foods  when  used  as  preservatives.  There 
were  three  ways  in  which  the  test  could  be 
made, — by  artificial  digestion  in  the  laboratory, 
by  experiments  conducted  upon  lower  animals, 
and  by  experiments  upon  human  beings.  This 
latter  test  would  obviously  be  the  most  satis- 
factory, but  no  one  could  be  compelled  to  sub- 
sist upon  foods  known  to  have  been  treated 
by  preservatives  which  might  be  injurious. 
Volunteers  came  forward,  however,  and  twelve 

281 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

men  were  selected.  For  a  long  time  these 
men  were  fed  with  foods  treated  as  the  foods 
offered  for  sale  were  treated,  with  the  result 
that  the  preservatives  were  found  injurious, 
both  when  used  in  very  small  quantities  for 
a  long  time,  and  when  used  in  large  quantities 
for  a  short  time,  creating  disturbances  of  the 
appetite  and  of  the  digestion  and  impairing  the 
health. 

The  unselfishness  of  the  men  who  were  will- 
ing to  submit  themselves  to  the  test  for  the 
good  of  their  fellows  was  not  only  a  refutation 
of  the  charge  that  there  is  a  growing  deca- 
dence of  the  true  American  spirit,  but  a  proof 
that  the  finest  chivalry  flowers  even  in  the 
midst  of  much  crass  selfishness. 

From  every  point  of  view  the  foods  of  the 
New  Earth  are  being  studied  and  improved; 
they  are  being  steadily  fitted  for  better  service 
for  man.  A  wider  knowledge  than  ever  before 
as  to  the  nature  and  value  of  these  foods  is 
accumulating  day  by  day,  for  the  benefit  of 
those  who  have  long  been  in  darkness.  Those 
who  should  know  the  character  of  foods  most 
intimately  of  all  but  who  have  been  of  all 
most  ignorant, — the  ones  who  provide  the  raw 

282 


THE  FOODS  OF  THE  NEW  EARTH 

material  from  which  these  foods  are  prepared 
for  man, — are  in  these  later  days  being  pro- 
vided with  avenues  of  information  along  which 
they  may  travel  to  health.  Among  all  the 
activities  of  the  New  Earth  none  is  more  im- 
portant, none  is  entered  in  upon  with  greater 
zest  by  the  practical  men  of  science,  none 
brings  a  richer  measure  of  profit  and  satisfac- 
tion. It  is  one  of  the  significant  movements 
of  the  generation — this  crusade,  if  you  will, 
against  bad  foods  and  for  good  foods.  It  is  a 
most  cheering  thing  that  people  are  learning 
that  it  pays  to  be  well  and  happy,  and  that 
one  of  the  ways  to  be  well  and  happy  is  to  eat 
better  foods, — not  necessarily  higher-priced 
ones,  but  better  ones;  to  have  these  foods 
prepared  in  an  attractive  manner,  and  to  bear 
in  mind  that  the  stomach  is  not  a  pack-horse 
to  be  loaded  and  goaded  but  one  of  the  most 
delicate,  precious  and  powerful  organs  of  man's 
body.  Without  its  sympathetic  and  healthy 
aid,  man  swiftly  passes  into  a  region  which  the 
dyspeptic  fitly  describes  as  a  hell  upon  earth ; 
with  its  aid  man  rises  to  his  highest  estate, 
physical,  mental, — indeed,  in  a  deep,  true  sense, 
moral  and  spiritual.  The  foods  of  a  nation, 

283 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

their  preparation,  qualities  and  purity,  largely 
determine  the  character  and  fiber  of  the 
people;  the  wider  and  deeper  man's  knowl- 
edge of  them,  the  nearer  he  may  approach 
the  ideal. 

The  study  of  foods  and  their  values  need  by 
no  means  be  restricted  to  those  who  approach 
from  the  scientific  point  of  view.  Nor  need 
one  become  one  of  those  enthusiasts  who  con- 
tinually do  dwell  on  the  border  lines  of  the 
cranks.  The  opportunity  is  now  open  for  any 
one,  in  town  or  country,  who  realizes  that  he 
has  been  cheated  a  good  part  of  his  life  out 
of  his  fair  share  of  service  from  the  foods  he 
eats,  to  determine  for  himself  where  the 
trouble  lies; — then  to  remedy  the  difficulty 
in  a  simple,  but  permanent  manner.  The  pres- 
ent generation,  and  still  more,  the  generations 
to  be  born,  owe  a  deep  debt  of  gratitude  to  the 
practical  men  of  science  who  have  simplified, 
and  at  the  same  time  enriched,  the  dietary  of 
the  world. 


284 


to 


T3     3 

•? 


43     3 

g  sr 


o  a 


g     43 

' 


CHAPTER  XV 

COOPERATION 

desire  for  betterment  of  conditions 
has  been  the  moving  factor  in  the  ad- 
vance of  the  New  Earth.  On  the  part  of  the 
men  of  practical  science,  to  whom  belongs  so 
large  a  measure  of  credit  for  the  development 
of  the  New  Earth,  the  effort  put  forth  has 
been,  primarily,  for  others.  On  the  part  of 
those  who  till  the  earth  and  live  upon  its 
bounty,  the  effort  has  been  indeed  for  self,  but 
in  no  wise  has  selfishness  been  at  the  bottom. 
The  advance  has  been  merely  the  working  out 
of  the  underlying  principles  of  self-protection, 
or,  better  put,  a  high  and  noble  care  for  one's 
own.  Naturally,  along  with  the  progress  of 
the  new  period,  has  come  to  those  who  gain 
their  livelihood  from  the  earth,  not  only  a  new 
sense  of  the  dignity  and  importance  of  their 
calling,  but  a  new  sense  of  power.  This  has 
manifested  itself  in  a  variety  of  ways,  some  of 
them  inoperative  through  lack  of  united  effort, 

285 


THE    NEW  EARTH 

some  of  them  one-sided,  but  all  of  them  on 
fire  with  independence.  I  think  it  is  quite 
impossible  for  one  who  has  been  reared  in  the 
city  life,  particularly  the  life  of  large  eastern 
cities,  where  the  people,  through  possibly  sev- 
eral centuries,  have  settled  down  into  conser- 
vative ways  distinctly  their  own,  to  appreciate 
the  situation  in  the  farming  regions  of  the 
West,  when  the  West  was  first  emerging  from 
the  period  of  the  pioneers.  All  conditions 
were  unsettled.  Everything  was  in  a  formative 
shape.  Very  large  numbers  of  farmers  were 
distressingly  poor,  as  must  ever  be  the  case 
when  new  regions  are  being  brought  under 
cultivation.  They  were  heavily  in  debt.  They 
found  it  exceeding  hard  to  meet  their  ob- 
ligations. They  were  individuals,  not  corpo- 
rations. 

About  the  time  that  the  New  Earth  period 
began,  there  came  across  the  sea  more  and 
more  frequent  tales  of  the  success  which  had 
been  achieved  through  a  union  of  forces  by 
the  weavers  of  Rochdale,  a  band  of  men  who 
were  in  sorer  straits  than  ever  the  American 
farmers  had  been.  These  weavers,  a  generation 
before  the  New  Earth  began,  living  in  the 

286 


COOPERATION 

English  manufacturing  town  of  Rochdale,  not 
far  from  the  city  of  Manchester,  were  in  dire 
poverty.  They  could  not  make  both  ends 
meet.  They  sought  in  vain  for  betterment. 
One  day  twenty-seven  of  them  banded  them- 
selves together.  They  established  the  first 
cooperative  society — in  the  modern  meaning 
of  the  term — in  the  world.  It  was  not  so  much 
a  blow  at  capital  as  it  was  a  protest  against 
poverty.  In  a  House  of  Commons  debate,  just 
before  the  society  was  established,  it  was  shown 
that  there  were  over  two  thousand  people  in 
Rochdale  living  on  forty-six  cents  a  week,  or 
less, — indeed,  in  some  instances,  as  low  as 
twelve  cents  per  week,  many  families  having 
but  a  single  blanket,  and  some  with  chaff  beds 
and  no  coverings  at  all.  It  was  a  case  of  life 
or  death,  and  the  weavers  chose  life.  They 
transacted  business,  the  first  year  they  set  up 
for  themselves,  amounting  to  twenty-eight 
pounds, — in  round  figures,  one  hundred  and 
forty  dollars.  I  visited  Rochdale  in  1899  and 
found  the  business  of  the  first  cooperative 
organization  in  the  world  advanced  from  one 
hundred  and  forty  dollars  a  year  to  over  one 
million,  five  hundred  thousand  dollars  a  year, 

287 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

with  profits  for  that  current  year  amounting 
to  two  hundred  and  forty  thousand  dollars. 
Prosperity  was  to  be  seen  on  every  hand. 
Cooperation  had  transformed  the  people,  had 
lifted  them  from  debt,  had  given  them  com- 
fortable homes,  had  provided  opportunities  for 
cultivation,  had  made  self-reliant  men  out  of 
worse  than  slaves,  had  transmuted  squalor  into 
comfort. 

Slowly  the  idea  spread  and  took  root  in 
other  lands.  In  1905  there  were  about  fifty 
thousand  cooperative  societies  in  Europe  out- 
side of  Great  Britain,  more  than  eight  hundred 
thousand  members  of  the  agricultural  coopera- 
tive societies  in  France  alone.  There  are  in 
England,  as  an  outgrowth  of  the  Pioneer 
society  of  Rochdale,  nearly  two  thousand  socie- 
ties with  more  than  two  million  members  and 
nearly  one  hundred  and  fifty  million  dollars 
in  capital.  I  stood  in  front  of  the  somber 
building  in  Toad  Lane,  Rochdale,  where  the 
handful  of  weavers  met  that  dull  November 
day  in  1844,  to  free  themselves  from  pov- 
erty. It  was  a  building  long  given  over  to 
other  occupations,  unattractive  and  down-at- 
the-heel,  but  it  should  be  forever  preserved  as 

288 


COOPERATION 

the  birthplace  of  one  of  the  greatest  of  all 
movements  inaugurated  in  our  era. 

Had  the  condition  of  the  western  farmers 
been  worse  than  it  was,  more  nearly  approach- 
ing the  condition  of  the  weavers  of  Rochdale, 
the  American  progress  in  cooperation  would 
have  been  more  rapid;  for  when  relief  must 
come  through  effort,  the  deeper  the  misery, 
sometimes,  the  greater  effort  demanded,  and 
greater  the  relief  when  it  comes.  Mention  has 
been  made  in  another  chapter  of  the  success 
of  the  Iowa  farmers  who  went  into  business 
for  themselves  in  order  to  get  fair  treatment 
from  unfair  capital.  While  their  effort,  so 
signally  successful,  was  not  in  a  sense  coopera- 
tive, the  principle  that  underlies  cooperation 
which  finds  its  expression  in  what  we  call 
self-preservation,  was  at  the  basis  of  their 
effort.  Cooperation  had  been  tried  in  a  num- 
ber of  places  throughout  the  United  States  as 
the  news  of  the  success  of  the  Rochdale 
movement  came  over  seas.  About  the  begin- 
ing  of  the  period  of  the  New  Earth,  a  number 
of  farmers  gathered  in  the  town  of  Hatfield, 
Massachusetts,  and  established  a  cooperative 
dairy  which  soon  became  successful  and  proved 

289 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

of  large  economic  importance.  As  early  as 
1860,  associated  dairying  was  followed  by  New 
York  farmers,  much  the  same  in  spirit  as 
actual  cooperation.  In  other  states  coopera- 
tion in  one  form  or  another  was  tried,  but  it 
was  not  until  the  farmers  of  the  central  West, 
learning  from  their  eastern  friends  and  hearing 
the  call  of  Rochdale,  began  cooperation,  that 
it  can  be  said  to  have  attained  anything  like 
large  proportions.  Many  of  the  western  far- 
mers were  the  sons  of  the  pioneers  who  had 
opened  the  country  in  the  midst  of  great  hard- 
ships. They  were,  in  many  cases,  still  living 
under  the  shadow  of  old  debts.  Frequently, 
through  lack  of  knowledge,  they  had  worn 
out  their  soils  by  too  steady  cropping  of  wheat, 
and  were  learning  by  dear  experience  that 
they  must  diversify  their  farming  or  sink  still 
deeper  in  the  slough  of  debt.  It  was  the  day 
of  dependence  upon  eastern  capital,  and,  how- 
ever great  the  real  obligations  which  farmers 
owed  to  others  for  starting  them  in  their  life 
through  loans  from  the  East,  which  not  infre- 
quently were  larger  in  their  risks  than  even 
the  farmers  themselves  appreciated,  still  the 
debts  were  there  and  must  be  met. 

290 


COOPERATION 

A  few  years  after  the  beginning  of  coopera- 
tive dairying  at  Hatfield,  some  such  sight  as 
this  could  be  witnessed  of  an  evening  in  some 
western  farming  community  in  the  school- 
house  where  their  educational  interests  cen- 
tered, or  perhaps  on  a  Saturday  afternoon  in 
the  town-hall  of  the  near-by  village: 

From  thirty  to  fifty  farmers  would  be  gath- 
ered together  to  discuss  cooperation,  or,  rather, 
to  enter  into  cooperation,  for  discussion  had 
ended  and  there  was  light  ahead.  An  agree- 
ment would  be  entered  into  providing,  among 
other  things,  for  a  constitution,  customary  offi- 
cers, and  so  on,  and  also,  that  each  farmer 
should  pledge  a  certain  number  of  cows  whose 
milk  he  agreed  to  bring  regularly  to  the 
creamery,  to  be  established.  A  fund  of  from 
two  to  three  thousand  dollars  would  be  pro- 
vided for  the  building  and  equipment  of  the 
creamery,  or,  in  some  cases,  of  a  cheese  factory. 
This  would  be  located  on  the  railroad  and 
nearest  the  center  of  population  of  the  farmers 
uniting.  Then  the  milk  would  be  brought  in 
from  the  herds  of  these  farmers  to  this  com- 
mon center,  to  be  separated  and  turned  into 
butter.  In  order  that  perfect  fairness  to  all 

291 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

might  prevail,  the  milk  was  credited  up  to 
each  member  not  by  amount  but  by  quality, — 
the  Babcock  milk  test  enabling  the  manager 
of  the  creamery  to  determine  just  how  much 
butter-fat  there  was  in  each  farmer's  supply. 
Usually  a  sinking-fund  was  provided  for  con- 
tingencies, including  repairs  and  the  like,  usu- 
ally five  cents  for  every  hundred  pounds  of 
milk  taken  in.  Should  there  be  a  dishonest 
farmer  in  the  lot,  guilty  of  watering  his  milk, 
or  otherwise  adulterating  it,  provision  was 
made  for  a  fine  of  ten  dollars  for  the  first 
offense,  twenty-five  dollars  for  the  second,  and 
expulsion  for  the  third.  At  regular,  and  fre- 
quent intervals  the  farmers  received  their  pay 
for  the  milk  turned  in,  so  that  there  was  no 
danger  of  the  accumulation  of  any  tempting 
surplus.  Having  complete  control  of  the 
creamery  themselves,  fraud  was  practically 
an  impossibility. 

The  growth  of  the  movement  was  rapid. 
At  the  end  of  the  first  ten  years,  about  the 
year  1898,  the  business  of  the  cooperative 
creameries  in  the  central  West,  inclusive  of 
such  states  as  Minnesota,  Wisconsin,  Iowa  and 
Illinois,  the  ones  most  largely  interested  in  the 


Grinding  corn  under  test  at  the  Illinois  station  preparatory  to 
laboratory  tests  to  show  the  exact  food  value  of  the  corn 


COOPERATION 

movement,  amounted  to  about  thirty  millions 
of  dollars  per  year.  The  practicability  of 
cooperation  in  the  United  States  was  thus 
established, — no  matter  what  might  be  the  out- 
come of  adverse  combinations,  or  what  the 
influences  brought  to  bear  by  unfair  capital. 
It  was  a  clear,  positive  illustration  of  the  fact 
that  the  underlying  principles  of  cooperation 
are  sound.  A  concrete  illustration  was  shown 
in  the  case  of  one  county  in  the  state  of  Min- 
nesota. This  county  was  exclusively  agricul- 
tural. There  was  little  or  no  manufacturing 
in  its  borders  upon  which  to  depend.  For 
years  the  farmers  had  been  pushing  the  wheat 
lands  beyond  the  limit  of  production,  and 
Nature's  slow  but  unanswerable  protest  had  at 
last  been  entered.  The  farmers  turned  to 
cooperative  dairying.  Creameries  for  butter 
manufacture  were  established,  some  twenty- 
nine  in  all.  There  were  nearly  three  thousand 
members,  or  stockholders.  In  the  year  in 
which  the  first  creamery  was  established  there 
were  twenty-four  mortgage  foreclosures;  the 
number  four  years  later  had  fallen  to  one ;  in 
the  next  year  there  were  none.  Ten  years 
after  the  establishment  of  the  first  creamery 

293 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

the  delinquent  tax  list  was  only  one-fifth  as 
large  as  in  the  year  it  was  founded.  The  aver- 
age deposits  of  the  farmers  in  one  town  in  the 
county,  the  year  of  the  first  creamery,  were 
fifty -six  thousand  dollars;  the  average  ten 
years  later,  with  the  creameries  in  full  running 
order,  was  three  hundred  and  twenty  thousand 
dollars ;  and  this  does  not  include  the  deposits 
of  the  creameries  themselves,  some  sixty  thou- 
sand dollars  additional.  Farm  lands  increased 
in  the  ten  years  from  ten  to  thirty  dollars  per 
acre  to  twenty-five  to  sixty  dollars  per  acre. 

The  illustration  is  worthy  of  close  study.  It 
shows  in  concrete  form  what  may  actually  be 
accomplished  in  cooperation  under  normal 
conditions  in  America. 

But  it  must  be  noted,  in  passing,  that  coop- 
eration in  the  United  States  and  cooperation 
in  Great  Britain,  for  example,  do  not  pro- 
ceed upon  parallel  lines.  In  essence  the  spirit 
is  the  same,  but  in  practice  the  English  system 
is  much  broader.  In  England  cooperation  has 
widened  until  it  takes  in  practically  every 
agricultural,  manufacturing  and  general  trade 
interest.  It  extends  to  the  cities  where  great 
establishments  are  founded,  carrying  on  an 

294 


COOPERATION 

enormous  volume  of  retail  and  wholesale  trade. 
In  America,  where  greater  freedom  in  many 
ways  prevails,  where  the  men  who  are  most 
interested  in  such  lines — as  the  farmers  of  the 
New  Earth,  for  example — are  broader  in  their 
outlook  and  better  fitted  by  their  freer  life  for 
service,  the  possibilities  are  even  greater  than 
in  Great  Britain.  The  extension  of  coopera- 
tion beyond  the  cooperative  dairying,  which 
has  been  so  successful,  lies  wholly  with  the 
farmers.  There  are  obstacles,  to  be  sure,  but 
they  are  wholly  different  from  the  obstacles 
which  have  been  in  the  way  of  the  success  of 
other  farmers'  organizations,  and  far  easier  to 
surmount. 

No  doubt  certain  selfish  interests  will  openly 
or  covertly  attack  any  movement  of  this  kind. 
Concentrated  capital  in  the  hands  of  unfair 
men  will  as  quickly  seek  to  destroy  the  life  of 
a  cooperative  creamery  as  to  crush  a  danger- 
ous rival  railroad.  Attempts  may  be  made  so 
to  combine  corporate  interests  of  various  kinds 
as  either  to  push  the  cooperators  to  the  wall, 
so  that  they  will  be  obliged  to  sell  out  at  a 
sacrifice  to  save  themselves  from  ruin,  or  to 
tempt  them  to  abandon  their  position  by  the 

295 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

promise  of  larger  financial  returns  in  combina- 
tion, even  if  independence  be  extinguished  and 
competition  throttled.  There  is,  on  the  part  of 
modern  capital  in  the  hands  of  dishonest  men, 
an  apparent  standard  of  success  which  is  meas- 
ured by  the  power  to  crush  or  corrupt.  The 
cooperative  creamery  movement  makes  no 
fight  upon  capital  as  such,  but  welcomes  its 
coming  as  a  factor  in  the  development  of  the 
country;  indeed,  much  as  in  the  case  of  the 
Iowa  farmers,  the  creamery  men  are  capitalists 
themselves  in  a  small  way,  managing  their 
affairs  with  the  same  sagacity  and  honesty 
that  mark  the  investments  of  honestly  admin- 
istered wealth  the  world  over. 

The  closer  one  studies  cooperation  in  Eng- 
land, and  particularly  in  Rochdale,  the  home 
and  the  fountainhead,  the  clearer  its  power 
comes  into  view.  Certainly,  I  could  not  have 
had  a  more  interesting-object  lesson  in  the 
scope  and  sweep  of  modern  cooperation  than 
that  which  was  afforded  in  the  fine,  well- 
selected  library  of  the  Pioneer  society  in  Roch- 
dale, twenty  thousand  volumes,  covering  every 
department  of  literary  activity,  liberally  patron- 
ized by  the  members  of  the  society.  Through- 

296 


COOPERATION 

out  the  city  are  twenty-one  branch  libraries 
where  the  cooperatives  may  obtain  books  with- 
out going  to  the  down-town  center.  In  the 
cooperative  stores  throughout  the  city  were 
reading-rooms,  or  news-rooms,  in  addition  to 
the  large,  airy  reading-room  in  the  library 
proper.  The  possibilities  of  cooperation  in  the 
United  States,  particularly  among  those  who 
are  most  directly  interested  in  the  activities  of 
the  New  Earth,  are  essentially  limitless.  The 
extension  of  the  system  until  it  includes  every 
department  of  farm,  dairy,  range,  orchard  and 
town  life  would  be  not  only  far  easier  of 
accomplishment  in  America  than  in  Great 
Britain,  but  the  results,  large  as  they  are  in 
the  latter  country,  must  be  vastly  increased  in 
a  country  so  peculiarly  fitted  for  cooperative 
endeavor  as  the  United  States. 


297 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE  SELLING    OF  THE   SURPLUS 

lovely  September  day,  when  the  fogs 
of  London  were  noteworthy  through 
their  absence,  I  was  wandering  along  King's 
Road  through  the  heart  of  historic  Chelsea, 
when  it  occurred  to  me  to  find  out  where 
the  fine-looking  beef  came  from  which  I  had 
noticed  hanging  in  the  stalls  along  the  way. 
King's  Road  is  a  crowded  retail  street  of  rather 
small,  but  well-to-do,  business  houses.  In  an 
hour  or  so  I  called  in  at  a  dozen  markets.  In 
each  instance,  I  asked  the  dealer  what  kind  of 
beef  he  was  selling,  and,  looking  sharply  at  me, 
he  answered  with  more  or  less  trace  of  dialect, 
according  as  he  was  provincial  or  city  bred: 
"Prime  Scottish,  sir.;  the  best  in  the  world." 

Or,  it  might  be,  this  remark  was  varied  now 
and  then  by  the  statement  that  it  was  the 
finest  English  beef  on  the  market.  In  every 
instance  but  two,  however,  after  I  had  ex- 
plained that  I  was  an  American,  and  was 

298 


THE   SELLING   OF  THE   SURPLUS 

merely  seeking  information,  the  dealer  told 
me,  quite  confidentially,  that  the  best  beef  on 
his  hooks  came  from  the  United  States.  He 
did  not  say  it  out  loud  in  London,  so  stiff  was 
the  prejudice  against  American  beef. 

I  kept  on  in  my  long  walk  down  Victoria 
street,  past  noble  old  Westminster,  and  out 
through  Trafalgar  Square,  until  at  last  I  was 
one  of  the  thousands  passing  along  the  his- 
toric Strand  toward  Ludgate  Hill,  where  the 
Strand  has  melted  into  Fleet  street.  But  I 
turned  off  to  the  left  before  I  reached  St. 
Paul's,  and  made  my  way  to  Smithfield,  the 
great  meat-market  of  London,  where  enormous 
supplies  are  daily  sold  to  the  retailers  of  the 
city.  Here  I  met  the  representative  of  a  large 
American  packing-house.  I  told  him  of  my 
experience  along  King's  Road.  He  laughed 
and  related  this  incident: 

But  a  few  days  before,  he  had  received  a 
telephone  message  from  one  of  the  fashionable 
residences  of  the  West  End.  It  was  from  the 
woman  who  reigned  over  the  affairs  of  the 
household.  She  had  entrusted  no  one  else  with 
the  ordering  of  some  beef  for  a  dinner,  to  be 
given  to  a  company  of  her  countrymen.  She 

299 


THE    NEW  EARTH 

asked  the  representative  of  the  American  firm 
if  he  could  send  her  some  extra-fine  Scottish 
beef — no  other  would  do.  He  hesitated  a 
moment,  telling  her,  of  course,  how  excellent 
was  the  last  American  importation,  a  lot  that 
was  particularly  desirable,  both  in  flavor  and 
curing.  She  replied,  animatedly,  that  she  was 
delighted  to  hear  it,  but  she  must  have  the 
Scottish,  for  none  of  her  guests  cared  a  fig 
for  American  beef.  Could  he  get  her  some, 
extra  fine?  The  American  dealer  smiled,  and 
answered  that  he  thought  he  understood  her, 
and  that  he  would  see  that  she  had  what  she 
wished. 

"And,  of  course,  she  got  it,"  he  added,  laugh- 
ingly, "and,  of  course,  she  knew  where  it  was 
grown  and  cured,  and,  of  course,  her  guests 
praised  the  beef  to  the  skies,  so  utterly  unlike 
the  horrid  stuff  the  Americans  send  over!" 

So  it  has  gone  in  past  days,  not  only  in 
England,  but  on  the  continent,  and  not  only 
in  beef,  but  in  other  products  of  the  earth, 
which  we  are  ready  to  barter  abroad.  Not  in- 
frequently, as  in  the  case  of  fruits,  for  example, 
it  has  been  the  fault  of  the  American  producer 
that  his  wares  were  not  in  demand  a  second 

300 


THE   SELLING   OF  THE   SURPLUS 

time,  and  all  because  he  did  not  appreciate  the 
fact  that  he  must  send  good  goods  attractively 
packed.  There  have  been  jealousies  to  fight 
and  prejudices  to  sweep  away.  The  swiftest 
way  to  accomplish  these  ends  is  to  raise  the 
standard  of  the  product.  Take,  for  another 
example,  corn.  During  the  year  1905,  leading 
importers  in  European  countries  entered  vig- 
orous protests  against  the  condition  of  the 
corn  received  by  them  from  the  United  States. 
Apropos  is  this  comment  from  United  States 
Consul  Diederich,  of  Bremen,  Germany: 

"  For  years,  complaints  on  the  part  of  im- 
porters of  American  corn,  or  maize,  have  been 
loud  and  numerous.  The  certificates  covering 
these  shipments,  in  many  instances,  proved  to 
be  utterly  false,  the  grain,  upon  arrival  here, 
frequently  being  in  a  wretched  condition  — 
damp  and  overheated,  moldy  and  filthy.  As 
the  firms  to  whom  these  shipments  were  con- 
signed could  find  no  redress  anywhere,  their 
losses  were  very  heavy.  Time  and  again, 
American  consuls  have  sent  in  reports  on  this 
subject,  warning  our  people  interested  in  the 
export  of  this  particular  grain  not  to  ship  any 
but  corn  of  prime  quality;  but  to  the  present 

301 


THE    NEW  EARTH 

time  all  efforts  in  this  direction  have  been  of 
no  avail. 

"  The  dealers  of  Europe  have  become  weary 
of  protesting  any  longer  against  the  American 
way  of  doing  business  in  this  line,  and  are  now 
ready  to  join  hands  in  insisting  in  getting  what 
they  bargain  and  pay  for.  They  demand  a 
square  deal,  and  they  ought  to  get  it.  In  view 
of  the  large  bumper  crop  of  corn,  which  is 
now  being  garnered  in,  to  be  offered  for  sale 
in  the  markets  at  home  and  abroad,  it  would 
be  well  for  our  home  dealers  to  be  prepared 
for  a  change  in  the  methods  of  selling  Ameri- 
can corn  to  foreigners,  and  to  make  up  their 
minds  that  it  will  be  to  their  interest  to  ship 
no  corn  across  the  ocean  except  it  be  fully 
ripe,  fully  dry,  and  well  protected  while  in 
transit." 

But,  notwithstanding  lapses,  the  extent  of 
our  export  trade,  during  the  period  to  which 
this  volume  is  devoted,  shows  that  our  expor- 
ters have  profited  by  their  experiences.  When 
one  considers  the  elements  in  this  progress,  and 
the  sweep  of  agriculture  in  America,  still  far 
from  its  meridian,  one  must  be  convinced  that 
our  sales  abroad,  enormous  as  they  now  seem, 

302 


THE   SELLING   OF  THE   SURPLUS 

are  meager  as  compared  with  what  they  may 
become,  if  we  are  but  wise. 

It  was  at  the  beginning  of  this  period  of  the 
New  Earth,  that  the  United  States  took  the 
first  real  steps  toward  the  development  of 
foreign  trade  in  the  products  of  orchard,  farm 
and  range.  No  doubt,  much  of  the  interest 
then  aroused  was  due  to  the  prick  and  stimu- 
lus of  war ;  for,  deplore  it  as  we  may,  war,  and 
especially  such  a  war  as  that  which  swept  over 
this  country  from  1860  to  1865,  is  ever  a  pro- 
moter of  trade.  Six  years  after  the  war  of 
the  Rebellion  closed,  in  1870,  the  agricultural 
exports  of  the  United  States  had  reached,  in 
round  numbers,  only  tkree  hundred  and  sixty 
millions  of  dollars,  and  even  this  sum  was 
eighty  per  cent  (79.9)  of  our  total  export  trade, 
showing  the  commanding  position  our  agricul- 
ture had  already  taken.  In  1900,  a  generation 
afterward,  Great  Britain  alone  bought  of  us 
nearly  fifty  millions  of  dollars'  worth  more  of 
these  agricultural  products  than  our  entire 
sales  in  1870  amounted  to,  while  our  total  ex- 
ports of  these  products  in  1900  reached  eight 
hundred  and  forty-four  million,  six  hundred 
and  sixteen  thousand,  five  hundred  and  thirty 

303 


THE    NEW  EARTH 

dollars,  exceeding  our  imports  by  four  hundred 
and  twenty-five  millions  of  dollars.  In  1904, 
the  value  of  our  agricultural  exports  had  ad- 
vanced to,  in  round  numbers,  eight  hundred 
and  sixty  millions  of  dollars.  In  the  same 
year,  while  we  produced  nearly  five  billion  of 
dollars'  worth  of  these  products,  we  found  we 
had  well  on  toward  a  billion  dollars'  worth  to 
sell  abroad.  To  show  how  stable  is  this  foreign 
demand  for  the  products  of  the  New  Earth 
in  America,  it  may  be  stated  that,  during  the 
sixteen  years  ending  June  30,  1905,  we  sold 
abroad,  twelve  billions  of  dollars'  worth  of 
these  products,  while  there  was  a  constant  and 
large  trade  balance  in  our  favor.  In  1904, 
while  there  was  a  heavier  importation  of 
foreign  products  of  the  earth  than  ever  before, 
mainly  coffee,  tea,  cocoa,  chocolate  and  wool, 
still  the  balance  of  agricultural  trade  was  over 
three  hundred  million  of  dollars  in  our  favor. 

Truly  we  deal  with  sums  of  commanding 
size  and  influence  when  we  consider  what  is 
transpiring  in  our  commercial  intercourse  with 
foreign  peoples. 

Taking  1900,  our  last  national  census  year, 
as  an  example,  we  find  that  the  ten  chief 

304 


THE   SELLING   OF  THE   SURPLUS 

export  products  of  the  earth,  in  their  order, 
were:  breadstuff's,  cotton,  meat  products,  live 
animals,  tobacco,  oil-cake  and  oil-cake  meal, 
vegetable  oils,  fruit  and  nuts,  dairy  products 
and  seeds.  These  ten  items  made  up  ninety- 
five  per  cent  of  the  total  agricultural  exports. 
Our  best  customer  for  the  year  was  Great 
Britain,  who  bought  to  the  extent  of 
$408,000,000,  Germany  being  second  with 
$134,000,000,  the  Netherlands  next  with 
$52,000,000,  and,  following  in  the  order 
named,  France,  Belgium,  Italy  and  Japan, 
with  other  countries  buying  from  a  few 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars'  worth  each 
up  to  several  millions  of  dollars'  worth. 

It  takes  long  for  a  nation  to  work  up  a  for- 
eign trade ;  it  takes  tact  and  patience  and  a  high 
grade  of  diplomacy  to  maintain  and  extend 
this  trade,  once  established.  It  takes  long, 
sometimes,  also,  for  a  nation  to  learn  to  take 
advantage  of  its  own  facilities.  In  making  a 
study  of  transportation  via  the  Mississippi 
River,  for  example,  one  is  struck  with  the 
wastage  of  facilities.  Here  is  a  natural  high- 
way for  the  products  of  the  earth,  much  of  its 
course  open  the  entire  year  to  traffic,  while 

305 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

the  northern  portion  is  open  during  the  period 
of  the  year  when  traffic  of  the  upper  country 
is  heaviest.  Immediately  tributary  to  this 
river  are  ten  states  comprising  over  twenty- 
two  millions  of  inhabitants  and  producing 
every  important  staple, — the  heart  of  the  great 
Mississippi  Valley,  one  of  the  richest  regions 
on  the  globe.  At  the  outlet  of  the  great  river 
lies  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and,  beyond,  the  east 
and  west  oceans.  When  the  Isthmian  canal  is 
once  opened,  the  market  of  the  Orient  will  be 
directly  accessible.  Note  the  distances  at 
present  from  New  Orleans  to  various  foreign 
ports  and  the  distances  when  this  canal  shall 
have  been  completed:  To  San  Francisco 
via  Cape  Horn,  15,052  miles,  via  the  canal, 
4,047  miles,  distance  saved,  11,005  miles;  to 
Acapulco,  via  Cape  Horn,  13,283,  via  canal, 
2,409,  distance  saved,  10,874  miles;  to  Callao 
via  Cape  Horn,  10,901,  via  canal,  3,000,  dis- 
tance saved,  7,901  miles;  to  Valparaiso,  via 
Cape  Horn,  9,962,  via  canal,  3,987,  distance 
saved,  5,975  miles.  From  New  Orleans  to 
Yokahama,  via  the  Suez  canal  is  14,929  miles, 
via  Panama,  9,234,  a  saving  of  5,695  miles ; 
to  Hong  Kong,  via  Suez,  13,020  miles,  via 

306 


THE   SELLING   OF  THE   SURPLUS 

Panama,  11,143,  saving  2,877 ;  to  Sidney,  via 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  14,624  miles,  via  Pan- 
ama, 9,251,  a  saving  of  5,373  miles. 

The  railroads  crossing  the  Mississippi  Valley 
and  paralleling  the  great  river  through  nearly 
all  its  long  course,  grow  rich  in  the  carriage  of 
the  products  of  this  imperial  valley,  while  the 
river  itself,  free  to  ah1  comers,  amply  able  to 
maintain  a  traffic  far  larger  than  it  has  ever 
been  called  upon  to  handle,  has  been  neglected 
through  the  years. 

I  have  wondered,  as  I  have  strolled  along 
the  wharves  of  the  city  of  New  Orleans  when 
the  cotton  was  moving,  if  the  time  would  ever 
come  when  the  shipping,  so  meager  in  com- 
parison with  what  it  should  be,  would  be 
commensurate  with  the  opportunities.  This 
noble  stream,  as  it  flows  in  resistless  power 
past  this  southern  city, — some  eighteen  feet, 
strangely  enough,  above  the  level  of  the 
streets, — should  be  crowded  with  craft  for  all 
ports,  foreign  and  domestic.  To  be  sure,  many 
cargoes  are  coming  and  going,  and  the  traffic 
of  the  port  of  New  Orleans  has  become  larger 
than  that  of  any  other  city  in  America,  save 
New  York, — something  quite  difficult  to  appre- 

307 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

ciate  for  any  one  familiar  with  the  shipping  of 
that  city,  of  Boston,  Baltimore,  and  Philadel- 
phia, of  Newport  News  and  San  Francisco,  of 
Seattle  and  Tacoma,  and  Galveston.  And  yet 
one  cannot  fail  to  see  how  great  has  been  the 
neglect  of  the  Mississippi  River  as  a  common 
carrier.  There  is  not,  I  venture  to  say,  another 
civilized  nation  on  the  globe  that  would  so 
ignore  such  an  opportunity. 

The  shipments  from  the  port  of  New 
Orleans  are  of  many  kinds,  chief  among  them 
being  cotton,  sugar  and  rice,  while  grain  and 
flour  are  exported  in  large  quantities.  Some 
indication  of  the  development  possible  in  the 
export  trade  from  this  port  in  the  products  of 
the  earth  is  seen  in  the  fact  that,  in  1901,  New 
Orleans  exported  nearly  twenty-five  millions 
of  bushels  of  wheat,  as  against  a  little  over 
three  million  bushels  the  year  before. 

Cross  the  remaining  half  of  the  continent 
from  New  Orleans  and  study  the  export  situa- 
tion in  the  city  of  San  Francisco.  Here,  in- 
deed, you  will  find  wholly  different  conditions, 
but  you  will  find,  as  in  New  Orleans,  that  the 
traffic  is  but  in  its  infancy.  A  battle  royal  is 
on  in  San  Francisco  and  in  the  other  north 


THE   SELLING    OF  THE   SURPLUS 

Pacific  ports.  It  will  be  years,  perhaps,  before 
we  know  who  wins.  The  trade  of  the  Orient  is 
the  prize  fought  for.  It  is  a  prize  worth  the 
winning.  Logically  tributary  to  these  Pacific 
coast  cities  is  a  traffic  estimated,  in  round 
numbers,  to  be  about  two  billions  of  dollars  a 
year,  fully  two-thirds  being  import  trade  from 
other  countries.  The  American  ports  are 
nearer  by  thousands  of  miles  than  the  nearest 
nation  worth  considering  commercially.  In 
1904  the  United  States  had  less  than  nine  per 
cent  of  this  trade.  To  make  the  situation  seem 
all  the  more  incongruous,  the  United  States  is 
not  only  logically  tributary  and  nearer  than 
any  competing  nation,  but  is  the  best  equipped 
nation  on  the  globe,  all  things  considered,  to 
supply  these  Orientals  with  what  they  must 
buy  away  from  home.  Take  it  in  the  line  of 
our  agricultural  products  which  are  in  demand 
in  the  Orient.  No  other  nation  has  so  great  an 
arable  territory  so  contiguous  to  transporta- 
tion, with  a  population  so  well  trained  in  the 
development  of  the  products  of  the  earth. 

The  outlook,  when  Chinese  boycotts  come, 
may  sometimes  be  dark.  The  American,  so 
swift  in  some  ways,  has  been  so  slow  to  see  his 

309 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

eastern  opportunity;  despite  the  warnings  of 
our  consular  representatives,  he  has  been  so 
very  slow  to  adapt  his  wares  to  the  whims  of 
the  Oriental  and  has  been  obliged  to  stand 
back  and  see  the  shrewder  European  nations 
capture  the  prizes ;  but,  nevertheless,  there  is 
every  reason  to  look  for  final  victory  in  the 
trade  battle  that  is  on.  Indeed,  the  exports 
from  the  United  States  to  China  for  the  ten 
months  ending  with  October,  1905,  were  more 
than  twice  as  large  as  for  the  same  period  in 
any  preceding  year;  and  this  in  spite  of  the 
boycott  in  China  against  American  goods.  In 

1904,  for  the  corresponding  ten  months,  the 
exports  to  China  from  the  United  States  were 
a  little  over  twenty  millions  of  dollars,  up  to 
that  time  the  record  amount,  while,  for  the 
same  period  in  1905,  the  exports  were  nearly 
thirty  millions  of  dollars  more  than  for  1904. 
In  1895  the  exports  of  America  to  China  for 
the   ten-month   period   were   $2,834,803;    for 

1905,  ten  years  later,  $50,104,767. 

The  Pacific  coast  alone  already  produces 
very  much  that  the  Orientals  need ;  that  which 
that  coast  does  not  provide  easily  finds  its  way 
across  the  continent  from  the  east  along  the 

310 


THE   SELLING   OF  THE   SURPLUS 

great  railway  routes ;  while,  when  the  canal  is 
cut,  the  Mississippi  River  and  the  Gulf  will 
furnish  their  supplies,  and  the  Atlantic  sea- 
board will  send  its  ships  swiftly  down  through 
the  route  that,  but  for  our  blindness  to  our 
our  facilities,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Mississippi 
River,  would  long  ere  this  have  been  opened 
between  the  two  oceans. 

While  the  trade  with  the  Orient  is  yet  in  its 
infancy,  it  is  remarkably  varied  in  character, 
both  outgoing  and  incoming,  as  may  be  seen 
from  the  following  partial  list  of  articles  which 
we  buy  from  and  sell  to  the  Asiatics.  You 
may  see  very  many  of  these  wares  swinging 
over  the  holds  of  every  Pacific  liner  as  you 
watch  the  loading  or  the  unloading  of  an 
oriental  cargo. 

Incoming  goods  embrace:  Coffee,  silks,  co- 
coa, goat-skins,  raw  silk,  spices,  tea,  opium,— 
sometimes   one  hundred   and   fifty   thousand 
pounds  in  a  year;  tens  of  thousands  of  dozens 
of  eggs,  dates,  starch,  sugar,  vinegar,  wool— 
these  suggest  the  variety. 

Outgoing  cargoes  are  made  up  of  bread- 
stuffs,  flour,  cotton  goods,  meat  products, 
lumber,  vegetables,  tobacco,  ginseng — the  root 

311 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

so  highly  prized  by  the  Chinese,  and,  to  them, 
possessing  magical  qualities — agricultural  im- 
plements, books,  maps,  engravings,  candles, 
patent  medicines,  clocks  and  watches,  dried 
fish,  chinaware,  dried  fruits,  glassware,  printer's 
ink,  gunpowder,  iron  and  steel,  locomotives, 
typewriters,  musical  instruments,  leather,  oils, 
writing  -  paper  and  envelopes,  soap,  candy, 
wines,  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars'  worth 
of  cigarettes, — the  list  is  a  long  one. 

In  1903,  when  we  sold  abroad  nearly  a 
billion,  five  hundred  millions  of  dollars'  'worth 
of  our  surplus,  not  quite  five  per  cent  of 
this  amount  went  to  the  Asiatics.  At  no  time, 
from  1870  to  1900,  did  the  Asiatic  export 
trade  of  the  United  States  reach  four  per  cent 
of  our  total  exports.  It  is  estimated  that  there 
are  eight  hundred  millions  of  inhabitants  in  the 
Orient,  with  a  trade,  as  indicated,  approaching 
two  billions  of  dollars  a  year.  Indeed,  the 
difference  between  less  than  nine  per  cent  of 
this  vast  sum  and  the  amount  to  which  the 
United  States  is  entitled  by  contiguity,  by 
facilities,  and  by  natural  resources,  forms  a 
prize  worthy  the  contest  that  is  on. 

But  it  is  along  the  Atlantic  seaboard  that 

312 


THE   SELLING   OF   THE   SURPLUS 

one  comes  closest  in  touch  with  the  foreign 
trade  of  the  United  States.  Eighty-seven  per 
cent  of  our  exports  of  the  products  of  the 
earth  goes  to  Europe.  I  passed  along  this  sea- 
board studying  the  export  trade  situation,  par- 
ticularly in  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  earth's 
products,  flour.  I  started  in  at  Newport  News 
and  made  my  way  north  through  Baltimore, 
Philadelphia,  and  then  New  York,  greatest  of 
all  American  ports.  Two  facts  of  large  signifi- 
cance stand  out  as  you  study  the  movements 
of  the  foreign  trade  from  these  and  other 
American  ports: 

First. — Before  you,  across  this  mighty  free 
highway  of  the  Atlantic,  lies  what  will  remain 
for  years, —  it  may  be,  if  we  do  but  arouse 
ourselves,  for  centuries, — the  chief  market  of 
America,  though  it  is  not  possible  for  any  one 
to  estimate  the  development  of  our  Asiatic 
trade.  The  millions  of  Europe  must  be  fed; 
they  must  be  clothed;  the  supplies  for  both 
should  increasingly  come  from  the  United 
States.  Behind  you,  as  you  face  the  Atlantic, 
lies  a  country  which,  with  all  its  progress  in 
agricultural  production,  is  but  at  the  fringe  of 
its  possibilities.  But  it  will  always  be  able  to 

313 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

keep  pace  with  the  increase  in  demand  across  this 
great  waterway.  There  are  those  who  main- 
tain, and  with  no  small  show  of  reason,  that  if 
our  present  trade  with  our  best  customer, 
England,  were  suddenly  to  be  cut  off,  so  that 
for  a  year  she  should  have  absolutely  no  meat, 
no  breadstuff's,  no  cotton,  no  supplies  of  any 
kind  from  the  United  States,  the  saddest  fam- 
ine in  history  would  follow ;  while  continental 
Europe  would  pay  off  many  an  old  score 
against,  even  if  she  did  not  wholly  subdue,  one 
of  the  greatest  nations  of  ancient  or  modern 
times. 

The  second  fact  of  large  significance  is  not 
so  comforting  to  our  pride,  or  so  suggestive  of 
strength.  Whenever  you  study  the  shipping — 
be  it  along  the  Atlantic  seaboard  or  the 
Pacific,  or  the  Gulf,  or  in  Canada — at  Victoria 
on  the  Pacific,  Port  Arthur  on  I^ake  Superior, 
the  great  export  wheat  depot,  Montreal,  or 
Quebec  or  Halifax — you  are  conscious  that 
the  men  who  man  the  ships  and  unload  the 
cargoes  and  appear  at  the  docks  as  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  owners,  or  the  owners  of  the 
ships  themselves,  if  they  happen  to  be  in 
port, — you  are  conscious  that  these  men  are 

314 


THE   SELLING   OF  THE   SURPLUS 

not  of  your  blood.  And  the  flags, — ah,  the 
flags !  Save  for  the  courtesy  of  the  port  which 
brings  out  your  own  colors, — a  hollow  mock- 
ery from  the  standpoint  of  the  commerce  of 
the  sea, — they  are  such  flags  as  you  seldom  see 
unless  you  have  traveled  far  in  foreign  lands— 
the  St.  George's  cross  on  its  field  of  red, 
symbol  of  the  sea  power  of  Great  Britain ;  the 
three-barred  flag  of  Germany,  black,  white 
and  red,  the  tricolor  of  France,  the  merchant 
tricolor  of  Russia,  with  its  bars  the  opposite 
of  those  of  France,  the  colors  of  Norway  and 
Sweden  now  forever  separate, — your  eye  may 
even  catch  the  white  elephant  of  Siam  upon 
its  red  ground,  or  the  white  and  blue  bars  of 
Greece,  while  it  will  not  infrequently  and,  on 
the  Pacific,  very  often,  see  the  striking  em- 
blem that  symbolizes  the  rapidly  growing 
strength  of  the  commerce  of  Japan,  the  mystic 
ball  of  red  upon  its  field  of  white. 

And  yet  there  is  no  small  comfort  to  be 
derived  from  the  fact  that  though  the  tonnage 
of  American  shipping  has  not  quite  doubled 
in  a  half  century,  while  that  of  Great  Britain 
has  more  than  quadrupled,  yet,  taking  the 
figures  for  1904,  the  United  States  leads  all 

315 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

nations  in  the  world  save  Great  Britain  in 
the  tonnage  of  her  merchant  ships,  being 
nearly  twice  as  much  as  that  of  Germany,  her 
nearest  competitor.  It  is  interesting  to  note, 
however,  that  in  1850  the  tonnage  of  British 
merchant  ships  was  4,232,962,  and  that  of  the 
United  States,  3,485,266,  while  in  1904  the 
British  tonnage  was  16,969,014,  and  that  of 
the  United  States  6,291,535. 

A  crowd  of  art  students  sat  chaffing  each 
other  while  the  model  rested  in  one  of  the 
famous  schools  of  Paris.  Many  nationalities 
were  represented,  among  them  the  Americans, 
—easiest  of  all,  perhaps,  to  pick  out.  The  con- 
versation finally  centered  on  the  war  between 
the  United  States  and  Spain,  just  then  brew- 
ing. The  European  students  voiced  the  people 
of  Europe  when  they  laid  out  before  the 
Americans  with  commiseration  the  course  that 
the  war  would  take, — the  ravaging  of  the  sea- 
coast  of  the  United  States,  the  destruction  of 
American  cities,  the  final  success  of  the  United 
States  after  immense  losses  by  sheer  force  of 
brute  strength,  large  numbers,  and  great 
wealth.  But,  echoing  Europe,  the  Americans 
must  expect  it;  they  were  a  commercial  nation, 

316 


THE   SELLING   OF  THE   SURPLUS 

not  a  fighting  nation ; — they  should  never  go 
to  war  with  an  old-world  power. 

The  American  students  said,  "Wait  a  bit; 
let  us  see." 

The  foreigners  jeered  now, — "Stick  to  your 
pork  and  wheat,  your  corn  and  your  fruits- 
fighting  is  not  in  your  line." 

When  the  news  of  Manila  came  it  was 
pronounced  a  miracle  by  the  Europeans, — 
nothing  short  of  a  miracle  could  account  for 
such  a  victory  on  the  part  of  the  Americans. 

When  the  news  of  Santiago  came,  and  the 
art  students  sat  around  the  model-stand  dur- 
ing the  wait,  and  the  Americans  asked  the 
others  if  they  had  read  the  papers,  there  was 
no  chaffing  going  on,  no  talk  about  the  com- 
mercial nation  that  did  not  know  how  to 
shoot,  but  only  such  tokens  of  respect  as  all 
Europe  was  offering.  And  the  greatest  mys- 
tery to  them,  from  some  points  of  view,  was 
this,  that  when  the  Americans  had  whipped 
the  Spanish  after  one  of  the  most  exciting 
chases  in  all  sea  history,  they  were  eager,  to  a 
man,  to  go  to  the  rescue  of  the  men  upon  the 
sinking  ships  at  the  risk  of  their  own  lives,— 
it  was  a  thing  beyond  comprehension! 

317 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

The  European  art  students,  like  all  Europe, 
were  right ;  it  was  a  peace-loving  nation  that 
was  going  to  war, — a  commercial  nation,  such 
as  it  is  today,  with,  as  yet,  largely  undeveloped 
native  resources,  able  from  its  great  granary 
to  provide  more  and  still  more  supplies  for 
those  who  are  dependent.  The  only  difficulty 
with  the  foreigners  was  that  they  did  not  go 
quite  far  enough,  that  they  did  not  take  into 
account  the  fact  that  a  man  might  handle  a 
gun  quite  as  well  as  a  hoe,  should  occasion 
demand.  The  future  of  the  foreign  trade  of 
the  United  States  in  the  products  of  the  earth 
seems  practically  limitless  in  its  possibilities ; 
it  is  in  the  pursuits  of  peace,  not  in  the  game 
of  war,  that  the  destiny  of  this  country  is  to 
be  developed.  To  those  who  gain  their  living 
from  the  soil,  in  whatever  department  of  en- 
deavor they  may  be  interested,  the  foreign 
trade  in  the  products  of  the  earth  is  a  subject 
worthy  of  their  most  painstaking  and  exhaus- 
tive study. 


318 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE    EXPERIMENT    STATIONS 

r  1 1 HREE  agents  in  the  dissemination  of 
-*•  the  knowledge  of  the  New  Earth  stand 
out  above  others: — the  national  government 
through  its  Department  of  Agriculture,  the 
agricultural  colleges  of  the  different  states,  and 
the  State  Experiment  Stations.  In  consider- 
ing the  scope  and  bearing  of  these  three 
powerful  aids  to  modern  agriculture,  it  is  not 
necessary  to  attempt  to  place  one  above  the 
other, —  there  is  quite  enough  glory  to  go 
round.  Each  in  its  particular  department  of 
endeavor  has  some  particular  influence  larger 
and  broader  than  that  of  either  of  the  others. 
It  is  of  peculiar  interest  to  note,  in  this  con- 
nection, that  these  three  agents  are  essentially 
of  the  age  of  the  New  Earth.  Many  lines 
leading  to  the  development  of  the  new  order 
of  things  had  their  rise  in  practically  the  same 
period,  the  beginning  of  the  last  third  of  the 
nineteenth  century, —  modern  forestry,  the 

319 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

great  work  of  Luther  Burbank,  the  knowledge 
of  the  structure  of  the  earth,  the  inoculation 
of  soils,  the  breeding  of  new  wheats  and  corns, 
the  control  of  insect  pests,  agricultural  educa- 
tion, the  national  Department  of  Agriculture, 
the  State  Experiment  Stations.  It  is  singu- 
larly interesting  to  note  the  comprehensiveness 
of  this  renaissance,  though  it  is  rather  a  cre- 
ation than  a  new  birth. 

In  considering  the  great  work  of  the  Ex- 
periment Stations,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind 
that  they  are  the  property  of  the  people,  in 
a  peculiarly  close  and  intimate  sense.  While 
they  are  under  the  immediate  control  of  scien- 
tific men,  and  articulate  in  a  certain  sense 
with  the  national  government,  they  are  pre- 
eminently popular  in  character.  While  no 
element  of  paternalism  enters  into  their  admin- 
istration, Hhey  yet  come  into  close  relations 
with  those  who  gain  their  living  from  the  soil 
in  directing  and  aiding  them  in  their  work. 
The  keynote,  if  I  may  so  use  the  figure,  of 
the  Experiment  Stations,  is  absolute  unselfish- 
ness. They  carry  on  experiments  and  achieve 
results  that  would  bring  not  only  fame,  but  a 
large  measure  of  profit  to  those  who  have  the 

320 


THE    EXPERIMENT    STATIONS 

work  in  charge  if  they  should  seek  their  own 
ends.  If  the  men  who  carry  on  this  work  of 
the  stations  should  devote  themselves  to  the 
mere  acquiring  of  wealth,  they  would  make 
more  money  in  a  year  than  they  can  make  in 
a  lifetime  on  the  slender  salary  given  them; 
for  out  of  their  discoveries  grow,  sometimes, 
vast  sums  of  money  saved  to  the  state  in- 
directly, large  amounts  brought  to  the  people 
directly.  So,  unselfishness  is  the  keynote.  Like 
all  unselfish  work,  it  is  successful  in  the  high- 
est sense. 

These  stations  are,  in  the  broadest  sense, 
educational.  They  lead,  stimulate,  restrain, 
advise,  control.  They  are  pedagogic,  without 
being  paternal;  influential,  without  being  co- 
ercive; commanding,  but  never  dictatorial. 
They  have  become,  in  some  ways,  the  most 
powerful  agent  in  their  influence  upon  the 
functions  and  the  developing  of  the  New 
Earth. 

There  are  sixty  stations, — one  in  each  state 
and  territory,  and  in  several  states  two,  one  in 
Alaska,  one  in  Hawaii.  They  are  organized 
under  what  is  known  as  the  Hatch  Bill,  a 
measure  which  became  a  law  in  1887.  Work 

321 


THE    NEW    EARTH 

had  been  carried  on  for  several  years  previous 
to  this  in  similar  lines,  in  some  of  the  states. 
The  national  recognition  carried  with  it  an 
appropriation  of  fifteen  thousand  dollars  a  year 
for  each  station  for  maintenance.  *"This  amount 
some  of  the  various  states  quickly  began  sup- 
plementing, as  the  importance  of  the  stations 
in  their  bearing  upon  agriculture  became  ap- 
parent. Lands  and  buildings  were,  in  many 
instances,  allotted  by  the  states  for  furtherance 
of  the  work.  The  annual  amount  appropriated 
by  the  national  and  state  governments  is  one 
million,  five  hundred  thousand  dollars,  equiva- 
lent to  only  about  fifty  cents  per  inhabitant 
per  year.  The  return  on  the  investment,  to 
put  it  merely  upon  utilitarian  grounds,  is  quite 
beyond  all  ordinary  percentages,  so  enormously 
are  the  stations  adding  to  the  wealth  of  the 
states.  In  a  single  decade,  the  North  Dakota 
station,  for  example,  is  adding  a  hundred  mil- 
lions of  dollars  to  the  wealth  of  that  state  alone, 
ten  millions  of  dollars  per  year,  largely  by  rea- 
son of  the  experimental  work  of  the  station 
in  the  development  of  cereals.  And  this  is  but 
an  illustration. 

Usually  the  stations  are  affiliated  with  the 

322 


THE    EXPERIMENT    STATIONS 

state  universities  or  agricultural  colleges,  and 
very  largely  the  station  staffs  are  made  up 
from  the  college  faculties.  I  do  not  know 
that  I  can,  in  any  way,  present  a  clearer  view 
of  the  scope  of  the  stations,  than  by  giving 
the  outline  of  their  prospective  work  under 
the  act  establishing  them,  though  the  needs  of 
the  various  states  along  particular  lines  fre- 
quently call  for  independent  investigations  in 
directions  not  included  in  the  initial  provisions 
of  the  government.  The  duties  of  the  stations 
are  prescribed  as  follows  : 

"To  conduct  original  research  or  verify 
experiments  on  the  physiology  of  plants  and 
animals ;  the  diseases  to  which  they  are  sever- 
ally subject,  with  the  remedies  for  the  same; 
the  chemical  composition  of  useful  plants  at 
their  different  stages  of  growth ;  the  compara- 
tive advantages  of  rotative  cropping  as  pursued 
under  a  varying  series  of  crops ;  the  capacity 
of  new  plants  for  acclimatization ;  the  analysis 
of  soils  and  water;  the  chemical  composition 
of  manures,  natural  or  artificial,  with  experi- 
ments designed  to  test  their  comparative  ef- 
fects on  crops  of  different  kinds ;  the  adaptation 
and  value  of  grasses  and  forage  plants;  the 

323 


THE    NEW    EARTH 

composition  and  digestibility  of  the  different 
kinds  of  foods  for  domestic  animals ;  the  scien- 
tific and  economic  questions  involved  in  the 
production  of  butter  and  cheese ;  and  such  other 
researches  or  experiments  bearing  directly  on 
the  agricultural  industry  of  the  United  States 
as  may,  in  each  case,  be  desirable,  having  due 
regard  to  the  varying  conditions  and  needs  of 
the  respective  states  and  territories." 

Along  with  this  general  provision  it  was 
laid  down  that  the  stations  should  issue  full 
and  detailed  bulletins  of  their  work,  in  addi- 
tion to  their  annual  reports,  a  bulletin  at  least 
once  in  three  months,  one  copy  to  be  sent  to 
each  newspaper  in  the  state  and  copies  to  all 
those  actually  engaged  in  farming  who  should 
make  request.  These  bulletins  contain  a  mass 
of  valuable  information,  practical  in  its  char- 
acter and  intended  to  aid  the  farmer,  dairy- 
man, horticulturist,  gardener — all  who  gain 
their  living  from  the  earth — in  solving  the 
many  problems  which  come  up  in  the  progress 
of  their  work.  The  object  is  so  to  present  the 
new  discoveries  that  the  average  man  may  get 
hold  of  the  facts  easily.  In  some  cases  two 
sets  of  bulletins  are  issued, — one  brief  and  in 


THE    EXPERIMENT    STATIONS 

the  simplest  possible  language,  for  distribution 
to  the  press  and  for  immediate  use  by  the 
agriculturist,  one  more  elaborate  and  scientific 
in  its  treatment.  More  than  six  hundred 
thousand  farmers  are  on  the  mailing  lists  of 
these  stations.  Nearly  a  thousand  men  are  on 
the  staffs  of  the  stations,  among  them  some 
of  the  foremost  practical  scientists  of  the 
United  States,  and  all  of  them  picked  men. 
They  conduct  original  research  in  the  lines  of 
physics,  chemistry,  botany,  geology,  meteo- 
rology, agronomy,  horticulture,  forestry,  physi- 
ology of  man  and  animals,  veterinary  science, 
animal  industry,  dairying,  rural  engineering, 
and  other  related  lines.  In  addition  to  these, 
they  take  up  many  questions  of  immediate 
interest  and  give  the  farmer  first-hand  aid;  as, 
for  example,  they  hasten  to  present  the  very 
latest  information  as  to  the  eradication  of  an 
insect  pest  threatening  crops  or  orchards ;  they 
give  free  expert  opinion  on  the  character  of 
a  soil  or  the  healthfulness  of  a  water-supply; 
they  test  a  certain  food  which  has  fallen  under 
suspicion  and  determine  whether  or  not  it  is 
fit  to  eat,  giving  the  inquirer  precisely  what 
the  compound  is  made  of;  they  answer  letters 

325 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

upon  a  thousand  and  one  topics  which  may 
not  have  any  direct  scientific  value  or  interest 
whatever.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of  letters 
are  mailed  annually  from  the  stations,  embody- 
ing information  which  the  farmer  could  not 
elsewhere  get,  and  all  of  it  free  of  all  expense 
to  him.  The  national  government  frequently 
unites  with  the  stations  in  cooperative  experi- 
ments. One  station  may  have  peculiar  facili- 
ties for  carrying  out  some  experiments  in 
forestry,  and  the  national  government  brings 
to  bear  all  its  powerful  influence  to  help  for- 
ward the  test ;  or,  it  may  be,  the  best  method 
of  exterminating  an  insect  pest,  or  a  problem 
in  irrigation,  or  a  demonstration  of  the  value 
of  foods  for  man  or  beast.  Often  the  men  who 
are  in  charge  of  special  lines  of  investigation 
in  the  stations  prepare  bulletins  which  are 
issued  by  the  national  government. 

There  is  also  an  association  of  American 
Agricultural  Colleges  and  Experiment  Sta- 
tions which  meets  in  annual  session,  where 
papers  are  read  and  discussions  held  on  many 
points  of  interest  to  all  who  are  engaged  in 
the  activities  of  the  New  Earth. 

Volumes  might  be  written  concerning  the 

326 


THE    EXPERIMENT    STATIONS 

work  which  has  already  been  accomplished  at 
these  stations.  It  would  be  impossible  to  give 
anything  like  an  accurate  estimate  of  the  value, 
of  these  stations  to  the  nation.  The  aid  which 
they  offer  is  vast  in  two  directions, — the  posi- 
tive value,  which  is  both  direct  and  indirect 
and  large  in  both,  and  the  negative  value, 
which  is  sometimes  quite  as  important  as  the 
positive.  The  negative  importance  may  be 
indicated  by  the  words,  What  not  to  do.  The 
period  of  the  New  Earth  has  been  so  short, 
time  enough  has  not  yet  elapsed  for  a  uni- 
versal spread  of  the  knowledge  which  has  been 
accumulating,  and  much  left  over  from  the 
older  order  remains  to  be  sifted,  tested, 
accepted  or  rejected.  It  is  fully  as  important 
sometimes  to  indicate  what  the  farmer  should 
not  do  as  to  show  what  he  should  do.  His 
calling  in  this  respect  is  not  unlike  that  of 
every  other  man.  For  example,  the  stations 
have  done  great  service  by  showing  to  farmers, 
on  analysis  of  their  soils,  that  they  must  not 
go  on  planting  certain  things  because  of  the 
soil  exhaustion  sure  to  follow  such  continuous 
cropping.  Again,  they  will  be  shown  that  cer- 
tain fertilizers  which  they  have  long  been 

327 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

applying  to  their  lands  are  utterly  valueless, 
or  else  that  the  amount  of  fertility  they  add 
is  in  no  way  commensurate  with  their  cost. 
Indeed,  the  station  may  show  the  farmer  how 
he  can  make  at  home,  at  slight  expense,  per- 
haps not  a  twentieth  of  the  cost  he  has  pre- 
viously incurred,  a  fertilizer  which  will  do  far 
better  service.  Very  much  knowledge  has  also 
been  spread  among  the  farmers  as  to  food 
values,  showing  them  by  practical  demonstra- 
tion how  great  has  been  the  wraste  of  former 
years  and  how  to  check  it.  There  is  probably 
not  a  station  among  the  whole  threescore 
which  has  not  proven  in  some  particular  line 
of  investigation  as  great  an  aid  negatively  as 
positively. 

One  is  confronted  with  a  formidable  obstacle 
in  attempting,  in  any  such  compass  as  this,  to 
show  the  direct  and  indirect  value  of  the  sta- 
tions in  a  positive  sense,  an  obstacle  too  large 
indeed  thus  to  be  overcome.  One  station  does 
work  in  the  reclamation  of  soils,  like  Cali- 
fornia, for  example,  which  transforms  whole 
regions  of  desert  lands  into  rich  orchards, 
simply  by  showing  how  these  lands  may  be 
restored  to  fertility  by  methods  devised  by 

328 


THE    EXPERIMENT    STATIONS 

the  station.  Millions  of  dollars  in  value  have 
been  added  to  the  wealth  of  this  state  by  rea- 
son of  the  work  of  its  Experiment  Station.  The 
details  of  how  it  was  accomplished  may  be 
had  by  others  simply  for  the  asking.  Another 
station  gives  out,  free  of  all  cost,  the  result  of 
the  investigations  of  one  of  its  staff,  and  the 
whole  dairy  industry  of  the  world  is  changed. 
In  the  invention  of  the  Babcock  test  for  but- 
ter-fat, Dr.  S.  M.  Babcock,  for  whom  the  test 
is  named,  of  the  Wisconsin  station,  provided 
a  simple,  economical  and  absolute  test  for  the 
ascertaining  of  the  amount  of  butter-fat  in 
milk,  considered  elsewhere  more  in  detail. 
The  result  has  been  that  many  millions  of 
dollars  have  been  added  to  the  wealth  of  the 
people,  while  the  test  has  been  adopted  over 
the  entire  civilized  world.  The  stations  of  vari- 
ous states  in  wheat  -  growing  regions  have 
added  many  other  millions  to  the  wealth  of 
the  states  by  reason  of  the  creation  of  new 
wheats  superior  to  old  ones  from  every  point 
of  view,  while  corn  has  been  bred  for  any  defi- 
nite purpose  and  largely  increased  in  yield. 
Large  sums  have  been  saved  in  other  states 
through  the  introduction  by  the  stations  of 

329 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

methods  for  preventing  diseases  among  live 
stock ;  others  have  saved  like  sums  by  reason 
of  their  fertilizer  experiments.  Others  have 
shown  how  to  raise  better  fruits,  how  to  pro- 
tect crops  from  diseases,  how  to  feed  beet-  and 
cane-sugar  waste  to  cattle  and  provide  good 
meat,  as  well  as  stop  unnecessary  leakage  of 
profits,  how  to  conduct  farming  on  arid  soils 
by  means  of  improved  irrigation  methods,  how 
to  raise  better  stock,  better  poultry,  more 
eggs,  better  beef,  how  to  live  better  upon  the 
farm  on  the  rations  at  hand  so  that  the  farm 
dietary  shall  be  not  only  attractive  to  the 
taste  but  strengthening  to  the  body.  You  can 
scarcely  mention  an  activity  of  modern  agri- 
cultural life  which  does  not  depend  upon  the 
stations,  directly  or  indirectly,  for  much  of 
the  effectiveness  of  its  service. 

There  is  one  test  which  may  be  applied  to 
all  this  great  work  which  sets  it  apart  from 
ordinary  scientific  investigation.  It  may  be 
indicated  in  the  question:  Will  it  help? 

The  chief  aim  of  the  scientific  agriculturist 
is  not  to  do  astonishing  things,  but  to  do  help- 
ful, practical  things,  those  which  aid  the  world 
to  move  with  less  friction,  which  make  life 


THE    EXPERIMENT    STATIONS 

for  man  and  woman  easier,  which  add  to  the 
sum  of  human  happiness.  It  is  never  a  specu- 
lative work  carried  on  to  satisfy  the  mere 
cravings  of  scientific  curiosity.  It  is  not  the 
work  of  a  day,  either,  but  of  long,  patient 
investigation  and  study.  Years  must  elapse  in 
many  of  the  tests  before  the  end  comes.  Fre- 
quently, the  end  has  no  tangible  results  in 
apparent  money  value,  but  the  test  under 
progress  may  have  been  of  extraordinary  value 
through  that  which  it  demonstrated  could  not, 
or  should  not,  be  done.  First,  there  must  be 
demonstration,  no  matter  how  long  the  period 
required,  and  every  step  of  the  demonstration 
must  be  firmly  established  on  facts,  nothing 
can  be  left  to  conjecture;  after  demonstration, 
comes  application,  and  it  is  here  that  those 
who  gain  their  livelihood  from  the  earth  reap 
their  benefits. 

While  there  are,  as  noted,  over  six  hundred 
thousand  names  upon  the  mailing  lists  of  the 
stations,  there  are  very  many  other  thousands 
of  names  which  should  be  upon  these  lists. 
The  only  requisite  for  securing  the  information 
needed  is  to  ask  for  it.  Any  one  who  is 
directly  interested  in  any  department  needs 

331 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

only  to  make  request  of  the  director  of  the 
station  in  his  state,  and  the  bulletins  will  be 
forwarded  to  him  free  of  all  charge.  Fre- 
quently, too,  bulletins  can  be  obtained  from 
other  states  by  asking  for  them,  and  thus  in- 
formation may  be  secured  from  more  than  one 
source  upon  allied  subjects.  Direct  communi- 
cation by  personal  correspondence  is  also  a 
source  of  much  valuable  information  and  aid. 
The  directors  are  too  busy  in  their  great  work 
to  answer  questions  which  have  already  been 
answered  in  their  bulletins  or  which  have  no 
practical  bearing,  but  they  are  ready  at  all 
times  to  give  personal  aid  upon  any  topic 
needing  further  illumination.  The  work  of 
experimentation  is  allotted  to  the  specialists  in 
the  various  lines,  and  these  specialists  are  ready 
with  their  information  on  call.  Thousands, 
indeed,  tens  of  thousands  of  dollars  may  be 
saved  to  farmers  in  a  few  weeks'  time  in  a 
given  region  by  the  station,  simply  by  means 
of  the  information  which  is  needed  at  once. 
Some  difficulty  arises  in  the  region,  something 
threatens, — it  may  be  the  raid  of  an  insect  pest, 
as  the  grasshopper,  or  a  sudden  and  malignant 
disease  among  hogs  or  cattle,  or,  it  may  be,  an 

332 


THE    EXPERIMENT    STATIONS 

attack  upon  the  cereals  or  the  vegetables  or 
the  fruits.  In  case  there  is  urgency,  the  spe- 
cialist in  charge  of  the  department  under 
which  the  threatened  disaster  logically  falls 
takes  the  first  train  to  the  infected  region.  It 
may  be  that  he  can  at  once  suggest  the 
remedy,  or  it  may  be  that  he  must  make  a 
closer  study,  if  some  new  situation  has  devel- 
oped, in  order  to  grasp  the  situation ;  in  which 
case  he  will  suggest  every  possible  means  for 
immediate  relief  while  investigating,  to  prevent 
a  recurrence  of  the  disaster  another  year. 

In  this  way  the  aid  of  the  bulletins,  of  the 
personal  letters,  or  even  of  the  personal  visits 
which  the  farmers  make  to  the  stations,  when 
they  live  near  by,  is  supplemented  in  a  de- 
cidedly practical  way.  Now  and  then  special 
excursions  of  farmers,  fruit-growers,  and  the 
like,  are  made  to  the  stations,  when  the  practi- 
cal workings  of  the  institutions  are  explained 
by  the  experts  in  charge. 

Important  as  has  been  the  aid  of  the  state 
experiment  stations  to  the  American  farmer, 
including  under  that  term  all  who  seek  their 
living  from  the  soil,  it  is  far  less  than  the  aid 
still  to  come  through  the  yet  greater  work 

333 


THE    NEW    EARTH 

now  under  way  at  these  stations.  Year  by 
year  new  tests  are  coming  into  fruitage,  new 
methods  of  doing  things  are  ripening  into 
action,  new  ways  of  making  farm  life  more 
attractive  and  farm  revenues  more  stable  are 
opening.  These  stations,  it  seems  not  extrava- 
gance to  say,  are  among  the  most  conspicuous 
evidences  that  there  is  something  else  in 
American  civilization  besides  greed  and  graft. 
They  are  founded  on  absolute  unselfishness. 
They  make  their  way  forward,  carrying  aid 
and  enrichment,  and  at  the  same  time  ennoble- 
ment, under  the  guidance  of  men  whose 
highest  aim  is  to  help  others  to  help  them- 
selves. 

In  an  even  more  intimate  way,  the  agricul- 
tural schools  and  colleges  come  into  touch 
with  those  who  stand  debtors  to  the  Experi- 
ment Stations. 


334 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION 

TN  some  ways,  the  most  important  of  all  the 
-*•  influences  set  in  motion  since  the  beginning 
of  the  period  of  the  New  Earth  is  the  revival 
in  interest  in  farming;  or,  better  put,  the 
creation  of  interest.  Very  largely  this  has  been 
due  to  agricultural  education,  now  at  flood- 
tide.  In  all  the  centuries,  the  work  of  the 
farmer  had  been,  from  many  points  of  view, 
menial.  Those  who  could  own  and  operate 
great  estates,  with  some  one  else  to  do  the 
work,  and  with  all  the  absence  of  disagreeable 
friction  which  wealth  implies,  were  happy  in 
their  choice; — the  vast  mass  of  the  farmers, 
however,  were  bound  down  to  a  distasteful 
life.  Those  adventurous  spirits  who  did  the 
pioneer  work  of  opening  the  great  West  fre- 
quently were  so  deeply  in  love  with  the  wild 
free  life  of  the  frontier  that  they  entered 
with  zest  upon  the  hardships  and  privation  of 
farm  life ;  but  a  very  large  number  of  the  men 

335 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

and  women  who  have  been  the  farmers  of 
the  republic  have  not  entered  upon,  nor  re- 
mained in,  the  life  from  choice. 

With  the  introduction  of  agricultural  edu- 
cation, along  with  the  other  important  helpful 
developments  of  the  life  of  the  New  Earth, 
came  an  altogether  different  point  of  view. 
The  young  men  who  went  away  from  home 
to  study  in  the  agricultural  schools  returned 
with  a  wholly  different  idea  of  the  farm  life. 
They  found  that  there  were  different  ways  of 
doing  the  same  thing.  They  found  that  busi- 
ness methods  were  as  pertinent  to  farming  as 
to  banking.  They  learned  that  it  was  not 
necessary  to  live  a  slovenly  life  on  the  farm, 
either  in  the  field  work,  in  the  barns,  or  in  the 
home  itself;  that  a  farm  could  be  so  adminis- 
tered that  it  would  be  a  place  to  go  to  with 
delight,  not  one  to  be  shunned  and  to  be 
abandoned  the  moment  something  different 
offered ;  that  there  was  money  to  be  made  in 
wise  farming;  and  that,  best  of  all  from  some 
points  of  view,  it  was  wholly  unnecessary  for 
a  farmer  to  forever  live  in  the  shadow  of  a 
mountain  of  debt. 

With  the  revival  in  interest  in  the  affairs  of 

336 


AGRICULTURAL    EDUCATION 

agriculture,  it  soon  became  apparent  that  an 
educated  farmer  was  as  essential  to  the  best 
development  of  the  farm,  as  an  educated  law- 
yer or  jurist  was  needful  for  the  proper 
administration  of  the  law.  Here  and  there  had 
been  more  or  less  successful  attempts  to  edu- 
cate in  agricultural  lines,  but  it  was  not  until 
the  coming  of  the  real  practical  agricultural 
colleges,  mainly  coincident  with  the  founding 
of  the  great  state  universities,  that  agricultural 
education  in  America  may  be  said  to  have 
been  established.  The  first  agricultural  college 
in  America,  that  of  the  state  of  Michigan,  is 
not  yet  quite  fifty  years  old;  while  the  history 
of  the  larger  number  of  them  begins  approxi- 
mately with  the  beginning  of  the  last  genera- 
tion of  the  recent  century,  the  period  of  the 
New  Earth.  In  1862,  in  the  midst  of  the  Civil 
War,  the  Morrill  bill,  as  it  was  called,  was 
enacted  by  Congress  to  provide  means  for 
colleges  for  agricultural  education.  It  granted 
to  each  state  thirty  thousand  acres  of  land  for 
each  senator  and  representative  to  which  the 
states  were  respectively  entitled  for  the  main- 
tenance of  these  land  grant  colleges,  a  splendid 
service  to  the  nation.  But  it  was  not  until 

337 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

the  war  was  over  that  the  wisdom  of  the  act 
became  apparent.  Then  came  the  actual  be- 
ginning of  agricultural  education  in  America. 

About  one-half  of  the  agricultural  colleges 
are  independent  of  other  education  in  the 
state,  while  the  rest  articulate  with  the  state 
universities.  Some  of  the  agricultural  colleges, 
or  schools  of  agriculture  as  they  are  called, 
lead  up  to  a  longer  agricultural  course  in  the 
university  proper,  ending  in  a  formal  degree, 
though  the  schools  are  broad  and  comprehen- 
sive enough  to  afford  a  complete  practical 
agricultural  education. 

I  think  the  most  serious  mistake  made  in 
the  earlier  administration  of  some  of  these 
colleges  was  the  effort  to  teach  more  than  was 
necessary.  The  aim  was  not  too  high,  but  it 
was  too  broad.  In  a  day  like  this,  when  such 
tremendous  forces  are  at  work  in  educational 
life,  it  is  manifestly  impossible  for  a  student  to 
master  all.  Some  one  has  shown  that  it  would 
take  at  least  seventy  years  of  the  closest  study 
successfully  to  take  all  the  courses  in  a  single 
modern  university  of  the  broadest  type.  Per- 
force a  man  must  specialize  to  a  degree, 
though  not  to  the  degree  that  eliminates  sym- 

338 


metry.  I  have  in  mind  a  student  who  followed 
a  carefully  wrought-out  course  in  an  agricul- 
tural college  of  the  broader  type.  He  knew 
quite  a  little  of  Latin,  something  of  German, 
had  dabbled  a  good  bit  in  history  and  logic, 
and,  if  I  mistake  not,  had  spent  two  or  three 
semesters  in  the  study  of  higher  mathematics 
and  the  evidences  of  Christianity.  Along  with 
this  he  accumulated  much  helpful  information 
regarding  farm  life  and  farm  activities,  but, 
when  be  had  been  graduated,  he  was  educated 
neither  for  the  farm  nor  the  forum,  nor  the 
pulpit,  nor  the  bank,  nor  the  business  house,— 
he  was  unbalanced,  and  much  of  his  effort  had 
been  a  sad  waste.  The  trouble  was  that  the 
agricultural  part  of  the  educational  scheme 
was  too  narrow,  the  other  part  too  broad.  As 
a  result,  I  do  not  think  fifty  per  cent  of  the 
students  associated  with  him  went  back  to 
the  farms  to  earn  their  livings.  He  became  a 
corporation  lawyer. 

I  have  in  mind  another  agricultural  college, 
or,  as  it  is  more  strictly  called,  a  school  of  agri- 
culture, which  illustrates  the  better  way  of 
teaching  young  men  to  be  farmers,  and  which, 
by  reason  of  this  teaching,  sends  back  ninety 

339 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

per  cent  of  its  students  to  take  up  gladly  the 
life  of  the  farm.  For  a  young  man  who  has 
had  four  years  of  training  in  such  a  school, 
who  has  been  shown  that  in  practical  and 
scientific  agriculture  lies  opportunity  for  prog- 
ress, such  as  almost  no  other  line  of  life 
affords,  and  who  has  found  out,  at  the  same 
time,  that  he  can  make  money  upon  the  farm, 
—for  such  a  young  man  there  is  scant  tempta- 
tion to  rush  to  the  city,  there  to  be  swallowed 
up  among  the  millions,  to  become  a  dependent, 
to  face  the  cold  facts  of  small  salary  and  large 
expense.  He  goes  out  from  the  agricultural 
school  independent,  a  king  among  men;  he  is 
untempted  by  the  allurements  of  the  street- 
car, or  a  meagerly  paid  clerkship,  or  a  narrow, 
specialized  department  of  some  grimy  trade. 
The  city  calls  to  honorable  service,  to  be  sure, 
but  it  is  trammeled;  the  country  call  is  for  a 
life  of  freedom  and  abounding  health. 

In  such  an  agricultural  college  the  practical 
is  always  uppermost.  Follow  a  young  man 
through  a  day's  work,  or  a  composite  day,  we 
will  say,  made  up  from  different  days  in  a  term, 
see  how  wide  is  the  reach  of  the  knowledge : 
He  knows  how  to  make  every  implement  in 

340 


AGRICULTURAL    EDUCATION 

use  upon  the  farm,  be  it  wood,  or  iron,  or  steel, 
and  how  to  make  the  tools  that  make  the  im- 
plements; how  to  repair,  at  his  home-made 
forge,  a  machine,  a  mower,  a  harvester,  a  plow, 
or  what  not  —  while,  under  the  old  order  of 
things,  all  the  labor  of  the  day  would  stop 
while  some  one  went  to  town  to  have  the  break 
mended,  there  to  find  the  village  blacksmith 
beside  himself  at  the  array  of  broken  machines 
awaiting  their  turn.  Time,  money  and  pa- 
tience are  thus  saved  in  liberal  portions.  He  is 
taught,  also,  how  to  take  care  of  machinery,  an 
important  feature  where  one  hundred  millions 
of  dollars'  worth  is  bought  each  year  by  Ameri- 
can farmers.  Vast  waste  was  suffered  in  the 
past  through  neglect  of  farm  machinery, — the 
new  man  knows  how  to  take  care  of  it. 

He  learns  how  properly  to  kill  and  dress 
cattle,  sheep  and  poultry.  Many  a  farmer  of 
the  Old  Earth  did  not  know  this,  nor  did  he 
have  any  comprehension  where  lay  the  choice 
cuts  of  the  beef.  He  ate  the  worst  and  sold 
the  best,  and  cursed  the  tax  on  his  teeth  and 
jaws.  The  new  farmer  learns  that  it  is  quite 
as  easy  to  have  good  meats  on  the  farm  as 
to  have  poor  meats.  The  anatomy  of  every 

341 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

animal  to  be  killed  is  accurately  learned,  and 
the  relative  values  of  every  piece  of  meat. 
This,  and  how  best  to  dispose  of  the  refuse, 
how  to  cure  the  meat,  how  to  prepare  it  for 
market,  are  also  among  the  things  taught.  He 
learns  how  to  select  a  dairy  cow,  and  how  to 
breed  stock  that  shall  do  the  best  service  for 
the  dairy  and  the  market;  what  breed  is  best 
adapted  to  his  climate  and  locality;  how  he 
may  provide,  at  the  lowest  expense,  the  food 
for  the  market  cattle,  in  order  that  he  may 
make  the  most  money  from  his  investment ; 
and  he  gets  acquainted  with  the  horse,  that 
noble  friend  and  helper,  in  so  intimate  a  fash- 
ion that  he  can  not  only  take  life  easier  him- 
self through  his  use  of  the  horse,  but  make  life 
infinitely  more  bearable  for  the  horse.  He 
learns  how  to  care  for  fruit  trees ;  how  to  plant 
and  prune  and  graft;  what  to  select  for  his 
climate,  and  why ;  how  to  prepare  fruits  for  the 
market  or  for  his  own  winter  food.  The  life- 
history  of  weeds,  and  how  they  rob  the  far- 
mer, together  with  such  an  intimate  knowl- 
edge, that  out  of  a  hundred  weed  seeds  he  can 
accurately  name  the  weeds  themselves  merely 
by  size,  shape  and  color  of  the  seeds ;  what 

342 


AGRICULTURAL    EDUCATION 

sort  of  crops  is  suited  to  a  given  soil,  and 
why;  how  soils  are  made;  what  makes  the 
wheat  kernel  give  strength  to  the  body;  what 
takes  place  while  food  is  being  digested ;  what 
foods  are  most  useful,  and  why;  what  makes  a 
balanced  ration  for  man  and  beast;  how  to 
make  the  best  butter  and  cheese,  and  how  to 
rear  and  care  for  and  make  money  out  of 
poultry, — these  but  suggest  what  this  new  fac- 
tor in  farm  life  has  for  capital,  when  he  leaves 
the  agricultural  school  and  eagerly  turns  his 
face  toward  the  farm  he  would  have  returned 
to  with  an  intense  and  bitter  hatred  in  the  not 
far  distant  days  of  his  ancestors. 

But  the  light  of  the  New  Earth,  as  it  is 
illuminated  by  modern  agricultural  education, 
does  not  shine  alone  upon  the  man's  side  of 
the  page.  Along  with  the  young  man  goes  his 
sister.  She  must  be  in  close  touch  with  the 
new  life  of  the  farm.  She  must  be  as  fully 
equipped  for  its  broader  service  as  her  brother 
or  her  husband-to-be,  or  the  whole  enterprise 
falls  to  the  ground  for  lack  of  balance.  So  the 
new  agricultural  education  is  for  both  young 
men  and  women.  The  girl  not  only  learns 
very  much  that  the  boy  does,  going  with  him 

343 


\ 


THE    NEW    EARTH 

to  many  classes  where,  once  upon  a  time,  it 
would  have  seemed  indelicate  for  her  to  ap- 
pear, but  where,  in  all  womanly  sweetness,  she 
learns  what  she  ought  to  know,  but  she  has 
her  own  individual  classes  which  he  would 
hardly  care  to  join  because  they  deal  with  mat- 
ters which  belong  primarily  to  the  home.  And 
greatest  of  all  the  influences  which  are  flowing 
out  of  this  dual  education,  is  that  which  makes 
the  home  life  upon  the  farm  attractive.  When 
the  farm  home  is  attractive,  the  corner  grocery 
or  the  saloon  will  not  be.  When  around  the 
farm-house  there  are  thrown  all  the  refining 
influences  of  music  and  pictures  and  books 
and  magazines ;  when  the  cuisine  is  as  care- 
fully planned  and  the  dining-room  as  carefully 
superintended  as  the  stable  or  the  dairy ;  when 
the  food  is  sensibly  prepared  and  served  in  an 
attractive  manner,  and,  at  the  same  time,  at 
a  marked  saving  in  expense;  when  drudgery 
is  transformed  into  dignified  labor  which  may 
be  hard,  but  which  is  never  menial, —  then  the 
farm  home  is  as  full  of  attractiveness  as  the 
most  exquisitely  appointed  palace  in  the  heart 
of  the  town, — ah,  indeed,  perhaps  more  so. 
Go  with  this  country  girl  through  a  com- 

344 


AGRICULTURAL    EDUCATION 

posite  day's  work  in  the  agricultural  school : 
First  of  all,  she  learns  about  herself,  the  one 
person  of  whom,  had  she  been  reared  under 
the  shadow  of  the  old  life,  she  would  have 
been  most  densely  ignorant.  There  are  wise 
teachers  who  know  how  ignorant  she  is,  a 
motherly  matron  who  knows  what  she  ought 
to  know,  a  physical  director,  a  woman,  also, 
who  puts  plainly  before  her  the  functions,  the 
imperative  needs,  the  possibilities  and  the 
responsibilities  of  her  life.  So  at  the  very 
outset  she  is  made  mistress  of  her  own  person- 
ality,— physical,  mental,  and  moral.  Then  how 
the  knowledge  of  new  things  broadens  before 
her !  She  studies  the  chemistry  of  foods ;  she 
learns  how  to  prepare  and  cook  foods  so  that 
there  shall  be  a  maximum  of  service  and  a 
minimum  of  waste;  she  learns  the  dairy  by 
heart ;  she  knows  as  much  as  the  young  man 
by  her  side  of  the  secrets  of  the  grains,  the 
grasses,  and  the  soils;  she  comes  under  the 
sane  control  of  a  woman,  who  teaches  her 
how  to  make  her  own  clothing  and  that  of 
her  children  when  once  she  shall  be  so  blessed, 
how  to  do  all  manner  of  deft  stitching  and 
mending  and  laundering;  how  to  turn  her 

345 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

hand  to  the  finer  lines  of  needlework  and 
embroidery,  so  that  these  may  be  hers  if  ever 
she  cares  to  follow  them ;  how  to  direct  a 
household  in  its  deepest  and  broadest  activi- 
ties. She  is  mistress,  too,  not  only  of  herself 
but  of  her  household.  Her  knowledge  is  pre- 
eminently practical, — hygienic,  dietary,  eco- 
nomic ;  she  is  fitted  for  the  degree  of  Mistress  of 
Domestic  Science,  if  such  there  were  to  confer. 

And  along  with  all  this  has  gone  other 
knowledge,  so  that  she  shall  be  broadened  as 
well  as  deepened.  She,  with  her  brother,  may 
go  on,  too,  if  she  wills,  into  the  more  extended 
university  course;  but  whether  or  not  she  ever 
takes  the  larger  course,  she  is  most  admirably 
fitted  for  the  life  she  is  to  lead.  She  has  been 
shown  also  the  importance  of  progress.  She 
is  eager  to  know  more  and  she  will  know 
more,  too,  for  with  the  broader  training  which 
has  made  her  systematic  as  well  as  symmetri- 
cal, she  will  have  more  time  to  give  to  her 
own  cultivation  when  once  she  is  back  upon 
the  farm  surrounded  by  precisely  the  same 
implements  of  culture  that  her  city  cousin  has, 
—pictures  and  music  and  books. 

So  the  life   of  the   farm  has   been   trans- 

346 


AGRICULTURAL    EDUCATION 

formed.  Much  has  been  done  by  the  tele- 
phone and  the  railroad  to  relieve  it  of  its 
terrible  isolation,  particularly  the  former.  The 
dead  level  of  humdrum  cares  and  the  awful 
monotony  of  the  old  way  of  life  were  sadly 
devoid  of  stimulation,  they  led  to  irritability 
and  then  to  dissatisfaction  and  then  to  settled 
moroseness,  sometimes  to  mania.  It  was  a 
powerful  figure,  woman  or  man,  who  rose 
above  the  monotony  and  grind  and  the  insuf- 
ficient equipment  and  the  distasteful  life  and 
maintained  a  cheerful  outlook  and  a  generous 
grasp  of  joyful  things.  Under  this  new  order 
of  things  the  farm  life  becomes  one  of  the 
most  attractive  in  the  whole  range  of  human 
activities.  Refinement,  culture,  enough  lux- 
ury, but  not  too  much,  an  occupation  that 
makes  good  health  imperative,  a  steady  incre- 
ment in  capital  and  a  generous  income,  an 
intimate  touch  with  the  outside  world  by  rea- 
son of  the  telephone,  the  trolley-car,  the  daily 
newspaper,  the  free  rural  delivery — it  is,  in 
many  ways,  an  ideal  life;  it  is  small  wonder 
that  the  tremendous  movement  toward  the 
city  is  being  here  and  there  checked ;  the 
outflow  has  already  begun. 

347 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

Some  time  before  the  issuance  of  this  volume, 
the  writer  had  occasion  to  secure  data  from 
the  various  agricultural  colleges  from  which 
to  draw  certain  conclusions  for  a  paper  pub- 
lished in  the  "  North  American  Review."  The 
various  presidents  gave,  among  other  things, 
the  percentage  of  graduates  who  went  back 
to  the  farm  on  graduation.  Wide  differences 
appeared,  the  percentage  falling  as  low  as  ten, 
in  a  good  many  cases  not  rising  above  fifty, 
and  only  in  one  or  two  instances  reaching  one 
hundred.  These  differences  are  now  disappear- 
ing under  the  newer  order,  so  that  the  day 
should  not  be  far  distant  when  practically  all 
the  young  men  and  women  educated  in  the 
wisely  conducted  agricultural  schools  and  col- 
leges will  go  back  to  the  farms  on  graduation. 
Already  nearly  ten  thousand  have  been  grad- 
uated, and  if  seventy-five  per  cent  of  these  have 
returned  to  the  farms,  each  one  exerting  an 
ever-widening  circle  of  favorable  influence  in 
his  immediate  vicinity,  the  aggregate  influence 
must  be  very  large.  It  is  this  aggregate  influ- 
ence that  is  responsible  for  very  much  of  the 
remarkable  agricultural  progress  of  America. 
The  number  of  graduates  must  now  rapidly 

348 


o 
I 

3 
.3 
1 

I 

_5 
< 


AGRICULTURAL    EDUCATION 

increase,  the  total  attendance  being  about 
fifty-five  thousand. 

In  addition  to  the  work  of  the  agricultural 
schools  and  colleges,  important  fundamental 
work  is  being  done  in  many  states  in  the 
country  and  even  in  the  city  schools,  in  the 
way  of  teaching  the  younger  students  the 
principles  of  elementary  agriculture.  In  this 
instruction  the  student  in  the  country  school 
not  only  receives,  by  the  novelty  of  the  work, 
an  added  stimulation  for  his  other  studies,  but 
he  begins  to  learn  the  secrets  of  the  life  about 
him,  is  gradually  brought  closer  and  closer  into 
touch  with  nature  in  his  formative  years,  and 
it  is  many  to  one  that  such  a  course  of  instruc- 
tion will  bear  fruit  in  permanent  interest  in 
and  liking  for  the  functions  of  the  farm. 

The  most  important  feature  of  all  this  New 
Earth  education  is  that  it  carries  with  acquire- 
ment of  knowledge  a  strong  and  abiding  in- 
terest in  the  learning  itself  and  the  things 
learned  about.  As  this  knowledge  is  now 
presented,  it  not  only  shows,  in  its  more  prac- 
tical aspect,  how  material  interest  may  be 
enhanced,  but  it  makes  a  powerful  appeal  to 
the  imagination,  to  the  love  for  the  beautiful, 

349 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

to  all  that  finer  and  higher  life  which  gives 
tone,  and  symmetry,  and  poise.  Agricultural 
education  in  America  has  become  a  powerful 
factor  in  shaping  national  life.  We  shall  find 
that  the  national  government  has  not  been 
behindhand  in  this  period  of  the  New  Earth  in 
its  efforts  to  help  forward  the  interests  of  those 
who  come  in  closest  contact  with  the  mother 
of  us  all. 


350 


CHAPTER  XIX 

NATIONAL  AID 

the  rapid  development  of  this 
country  in  post-colonial  days,  it  be- 
came more  than  ever  apparent  that,  whatever 
America  might  do  in  manufactures,  it  was 
preeminently  an  agricultural  nation.  From 
time  to  time  efforts  were  made  to  give  this 
fact  national  recognition,  such  recognition  as 
had  for  many  years  been  demanded,  but  all 
efforts  were  unavailing.  In  the  midst  of  the 
Civil  War,  when  the  interests  of  the  country, 
North  and  South,  centered  in  that  struggle, 
the  national  Congress  turned  away  from  car- 
nage long  enough  to  establish,  on  May  15, 
1862,  the  Bureau  of  Agriculture.  The  enact- 
ment of  the  law  providing  for  the  bureau 
said: 

"  There  is  hereby  established  at  the  seat  of 
the  government  of  the  United  States  a  De- 
partment of  Agriculture,  the  general  designs 
and  duties  of  which  shall  be  to  acquire  and 

351 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

diffuse  among  the  people  of  the  United  States 
useful  information  on  subjects  connected  with 
agriculture  in  the  most  general  and  compre- 
hensive sense  of  that  word,  and  to  procure, 
propagate  and  distribute  among  the  people 
new  and  valuable  seeds  and  plants." 

The  initial  report  of  the  new  Department, 
issued  under  the  direction  of  Isaac  Newton, 
the  first  Commissioner  of  Agriculture,  who 
held  the  position  from  1862  to  1867,  brought 
out  these,  among  many  other  points,  well 
worth  considering  in  these  later  days: 

"Agricultural  pursuits,"  he  said,  "tend  to 
modify  and  tranquilize  the  false  ambitions  of 
nations,  to  heal  sectional  animosities,  and 
afford  a  noble  avenue  of  honorable  rivalry. 
The  acquisition  of  comparatively  slow  but 
sure  wealth,  drawn  from  and  invested  in  the 
soil,  develops  health  of  body,  independence  and 
simplicity  of  life  and  love  of  country;  while 
the  rapid  accumulation  of  wealth,  not  by  pro- 
duction but  by  trade  and  speculation,  is 
unnatural  and  unhealthy.  It  attracts  men  to 
cities  and  tempts  men  to  wild  investments. 
It  too  often  unsettles  moral  principles  and 
substitutes  selfishness  for  patriotism.  Men  of 

852 


NATIONAL    AID 

the  country,  living  in  calm  content  and  form- 
ing almost  the  entire  wealth  and  population  of 
the  Union,  constitute  the  truly  conservative 
element  in  our  politics.  The  men  of  the  city, 
living  in  the  midst  of  excitements — political, 
social,  monetary  and  moral — too  often  feed 
these  baneful  causes  of  national  ruin,  to  wit: 
Speculation,  luxury,  effeminacy,  political  cor- 
ruption and  personal  ambition.  .  .  .  Agricul- 
ture is  the  cause  and  evidence  of  true  living ; 
for  where  tillage  begins,  barbarism  ends  and 
the  various  arts  commence.  When  agriculture 
prospers,  all  other  interests  prosper.  When 
this  fails,  depression,  panic  and  ruin  ensue. 
.  .  .  The  United  States  is,  and  must  always 
remain,  an  agricultural  nation." 

While  the  developments  of  recent  years 
show  very  clearly  that  the  United  States  is 
something  other  than  an  agricultural  nation, 
the  manufacturing  and  strictly  commercial  in- 
terests having  risen  to  colossal  proportions, 
yet,  in  essence,  the  commissioner  was  right. 
America  is  as  dependent  as  ever  upon  agricul- 
ture today, — as  dependent  as  it  must  always 
remain.  The  establishment  of  the  Department 
of  Agriculture,  though  a  tardy  act,  was  yet  in 

353 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

time  to  help  upward  and  onward  the  tiller  of 
the  soil  at  a  time  of  great  crisis,  when  the 
swords  were  being  beaten  back  into  plow- 
shares. Coming,  too,  at  the  very  beginning  of 
the  period  of  the  New  Earth,  it  emphasized 
the  revival  in  agricultural  interest  and  gave 
promise  of  national  recognition  upon  a  gen- 
erous scale. 

This  promise  has  been  splendidly  fulfilled. 
The  department  itself  has  passed  through 
many  crises,  has  made  its  own  lamentable 
mistakes,  and  sometimes  may  have  been  halt- 
ing when  it  should  have  been  aggressive,  but 
it  has  been  administered  in  sincerity  and  it  has 
been  a  credit  to  American  life;  it  has  been  of 
vast  help  to  the  people. 

Little  by  little,  as  the  new  thought  has 
spread,  the  Department  has  broadened  its  scope 
to  keep  abreast  with  the  progress  of  the  New 
Earth.  One  by  one  new  departures  and  ad- 
vances have  been  made,  and  one  by  one  old 
features  have  been  taken  up  where  they 
showed  signs  of  slumbering  vitality  and  revivi- 
fied. The  initial  object,  to  acquire  and  diffuse 
knowledge,  has  steadily  been  kept  in  mind.  A 
review  of  all  the  lines  of  approach  to  the 

354 


NATIONAL    AID 

affairs  of  the  New  Earth  which  have  been  laid 
out  by  the  department,  would  consume  more 
space  than  may  here  be  given,  but  we  may 
briefly  consider  some  of  the  more  significant 
of  them  in  an  effort  to  indicate  the  powerful 
influence  of  the  department  upon  the  life  of 
the  tiller  of  the  soil. 

Conspicuous  among  these  lines  at  present, 
by  reason  of  the  great  popular  interest  which 
has  of  late  been  aroused  in  plant  life,  is  the 
Bureau  of  Plant  Industry,  which  aims  to  give 
national  aid  to  the  farmer,  the  horticulturist, 
the  market-gardener,  to  all  who  are  immedi- 
ately interested  in  vegetable  life.  Large  num- 
bers of  men  are  employed  in  this  bureau 
engaged  in  searching  for  new  plants  in  all 
quarters  of  the  globe,  and  in  determining 
whether  or  not  these  plants  are  practicable  for 
introduction,  and  whether,  if  transplantable, 
they  are  desirable.  The  work  has  proven  so 
important,  it  has  broadened  rapidly,  so  that  it 
has  become  quite  impossible  to  keep  up  the 
supply  of  men.  These  men  must  be  particu- 
larly fitted  for  the  work.  Three  qualities  are 
at  least  essential, — a  fondness  for  it,  education 
for  it,  and  adaptation  to  it.  All  these  must  be 

355 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

cemented  together  with  shrewd  common  sense 
and  no  small  degree  of  diplomacy.  These  men, 
called  agricultural  explorers,  are  now  distrib- 
uted practically  over  the  entire  globe.  As 
rapidly  as  others  can  be  trained  the  globe  is 
divided  into  smaller  regions,  in  order  that  more 
work  may  be  done.  Five  hundred  men  are 
already,  in  1906,  under  service  in  this  bureau, 
and  it  is  only  a  few  years  old.  Sixty  per  cent 
of  these  men  are  engaged  in  scientific  investi- 
gation and  its  application  to  the  farm,  orchard 
and  garden. 

While  the  scientific  side  of  the  work  is  con- 
ducted with  earnestness,  the  practical  side  is 
by  no  means  overlooked,  but  rather  empha- 
sized. For  example,  the  bureau  has  undertaken 
the  direction  of  farms  in  certain  regions,  par- 
ticularly, at  present,  in  the  South,  where  prob- 
lems which  baffle  the  farmers  of  the  locality 
are  worked  out  before  them,  and  the  reasons 
for  doing  the  problems  in  such  and  such  ways 
are  clearly  demonstrated  day  by  day.  Thirty- 
two  of  these  farms  are  now  under  the  super- 
vision of  the  bureau,  located  in  Louisana, 
Texas,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  South 
Carolina  and  Florida.  Representatives  of  the 

356 


NATIONAL    AID 

bureau,  usually  in  connection  with  representa- 
tives of  the  experiment  stations  of  the  several 
states,  plan  out  the  work  in  a  systematic 
manner.  This  includes  not  only  the  actual 
demonstration  of  how  a  crop  should  be  culti- 
vated in  order  to  make  the  most  money  out  of 
it,  but  also  elaborate  systems  of  records  show- 
ing the  steps  taken  in  each  individual  case. 
At  all  points,  the  aim  of  the  department  is  not 
to  be  paternal  in  the  administration  of  these 
farms,  but  to  be  helpful ;  realizing  also  that  it 
is  the  money  of  the  people  that  is  being  spent 
to  carry  this  work  forward  and  that  it  is  in  no 
sense  a  private  enterprise. 

Another  important  branch  of  the  plant 
bureau  is  the  investigation  into  the  relative 
values  of  plants  and  the  improvement  and 
adaptation  of  them  to  new  conditions.  The 
bureau  also  undertakes  work  in  the  developing 
of  new  fruits,  the  reclaiming  of  sand-dunes 
along  the  seacoasts  by  means  of  sand-binding 
grasses  which  thwart  the  winds  and  the  tides, 
the  restoration  of  over-grazed  ranges,  as  in 
Arizona, — where  the  land,  once  rich  in  grasses 
for  the  herds,  rapidly  becomes  a  desert, — the 
danger  being  averted  merely  by  restricting  the 

357 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

number  of  animals  allowed  to  browse.  It  has 
done  extensive  work  in  the  introduction  of 
the  macaroni  wheat,  which  will  thrive  on  soils 
where  the  common  wheat  will  not,  and  much 
is  expected  from  this  new  cereal. 

The  Department  has  had  supervision  of 
other  important  work  in  lines  allied  to  this, 
notably  in  .the  cultivation  of  cotton.  The  cot- 
ton-raisers of  the  South  have  been  aided,  not 
only  by  the  introduction  of  better  methods, 
but  by  the  production  of  new  types  of  cotton. 
Rice,  also,  has  been  under  the  close  study  of 
the  Department,  because  it  was  seen  that  the 
rice-raisers  of  the  South  were  not  getting  back 
from  their  labor  an  equitable  return.  So  better 
ways  of  cultivation  have  been  suggested  and  a 
rice-farm,  or  -plantation,  has  been  established 
in  Louisiana  by  the  Department  for  the  solu- 
tion, in  a  practical  way,  of  the  problems  which 
arise  in  the  cultivation  of  this  important  food. 
Much  has  been  done,  also,  in  the  way  of  test- 
ing new  varieties  of  rice.  The  production  of 
rice  in  the  South  has  been  largely  increased 
as  a  result. 

The  improvement  of  the  sugar-beet  seed 
has  been,  for  a  long  time,  under  way.  Strains 


NATIONAL    AID 

of  what  are  called  pedigreed  seeds,  tested  seeds 
whose  whole  life-history  is  known  and  re- 
corded, and  which  are  known  to  be  capable  of 
producing  increased  yields,  are  now  available. 
The  cooperative  work  in  tea-raising  in  South 
Carolina  has  resulted  in  the  production  of  a 
superior  grade  of  tea,  quite  beyond  the  ordinary 
commercial  importation.  The  young  tea-leaves 
alone  are  selected  for  the  best  of  the  crop,  and 
the  eight  or  ten  thousand  pounds  now  pro- 
duced on  the  experimental  farm  in  a  season  is 
many  times  more  valuable  than  the  imported 
grades.  Demonstrations  as  to  the  value  of 
alfalfa  as  a  forage  crop,  and  that  it  can  be 
raised  in  almost  every  state  in  the  Union ;  plans 
for  the  introduction  of  nitrogen -producing 
bacteria  for  the  restoration  of  worn-out  soils ; 
the  solution  of  problems  in  cold  storage  of 
fruits,  as  well  as  aid  in  the  matter  of  better 
methods  of  fruit  marketing, — these  suggest 
other  related  lines  in  which  the  Department 
comes  into  close  practical  touch  with  the 
people. 

The  fact  that  nearly  fifteen  hundred  new 

kinds  of  seeds  and  plants  were  introduced  by 

*   the  Department  during  the  year  1904,  includ- 

359 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

ing  three  hundred  and  fifty  date  suckers, 
representing  forty-two  varieties,  nineteen  va- 
rieties of  grapes  from  the  Russian  Caucasus, 
thirty-three  varieties  of  mangoes  from  central 
India,  one  hundred  and  fifty-seven  bushels  of 
berseem  from  the  Nile  valley,  two  thousand 
pounds  of  the  new  Moravian  barley,  and  two 
hundred  hardy  Russian  cherry  trees,  indicates 
the  progress  being  made  in  this  direction. 

While  the  Department  is  doing  much  in  the 
way  of  the  reclamation  of  arid  soils,  showing 
by  experimental  work  in  alkali  lands  the  value 
of  certain  forms  of  drainage  and  other  devices, 
the  work  coming  under  the  head  of  the  soil 
survey  is  of  particular  interest.  Here  the 
practical  help  of  the  Department  to  those 
whose  living  comes  from  the  soil,  and,  indi- 
rectly, to  all  the  people, — for  all  are,  in  a  very 
positive  sense,'  dependent  upon  the  soil, — is 
shown.  The  Department  has  now  surveyed 
and  mapped  out  bodies  of  land  in  thirty-three 
states,  aggregating,  all  told,  nearly  fifty  mil- 
lions of  acres.  Elaborate  tests  are  made  of  the 
soils  in  all  the  different  areas  in  order  that  the 
farmers,  fruit-growers,  grazers,  or  what  not,  in 
each  individual  locality,  may  know  the  exact 

360 


NATIONAL    AID 

character  of  the  soil  they  are  using.  Along 
with  this  the  farmers  are  shown,  by  practical 
demonstration,  the  importance  of  diversifying 
their  farming.  A  portion  of  the  money  neces- 
sary to  carry  on  this  work  is  provided  by  the 
states,  but  the  major  portion  comes  from  the 
general  government. 

The  Bureau  of  Forestry,  elsewhere  referred 
to  more  at  length,  is  now  one  of  the  virile 
divisions  of  the  Department;  the  Weather 
Bureau,  which  has  become  of  incalculable 
value  through  its  warnings  of  cold  waves, 
frosts,  floods,  storms  of  all  types,  and  the  like, 
now  a  branch  of  the  Department,  comes  into 
particularly  intimate  relations  with  those  who 
gain  their  livelihood  from  the  earth,  and  more 
especially  since  the  introduction  of  rural  deliv- 
ery of  the  forecasts  by  telephone;  the  En- 
tomological Bureau  has  come  prominently  to 
the  fore  in  its  efforts  to  combat  the  cotton-boll 
weevil,  an  appropriation  of  two  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  dollars  on  the  part  of  the  na- 
tional Congress  in  aid  of  the  work  indicating 
the  interest  taken;  the  Bureau  of  Animal 
Industry  not  only  keeps  a  check  on  the  pro- 
duction of  undesirable  meats  at  home  by  reason 

361 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

of  the  meat  inspection  service,  but  fosters  and 
encourages  the  foreign  trade  in  meats ;  the 
Bureau  of  Chemistry  is  doing  a  most  impor- 
tant work  in  the  exposing  of  frauds  in  foods  as 
well  as  in  the  establishment  of  food  values 
and  what  constitutes  the  most  sensible  ration 
for  man  under  all  his  different  conditions  of 
in-  and  outdoor  life. 

The  great  scope  of  the  work  of  the  Depart- 
ment may  not  be  more  than  indicated  here, 
but  it  will  be  seen  that  these  bureaus  consti- 
tute one  of  the  most  important  aids  to  the 
advancement  of  the  interests  of  the  New 
Earth. 

In  cooperation  with  officials  in  various 
states, — and  this  illustrates  the  wide  scope  of 
the  work  of  the  Department, — object-lesson 
roads  are  being  constructed,  showing  in  a  prac- 
tical manner  the  solution  of  the  good-roads 
problem, — one  of  the  most  perplexing  and  costly 
problems,  by  the  way,  that  come  up  for  solu- 
tion, particularly  in  the  newer  portions  of  the 
country.  The  Department  considers  the  sub- 
ject of  country  roads  in  America  so  important 
that  a  school  for  road -building  is  projected, 
the  students  to  consist  of  men  who  have 

362 


NATIONAL    AID 

already  received  degrees  from  reputable  engi- 
neering schools. 

The  Department  of  Agriculture  comes  into 
intimate  touch  with  the  activities  of  the  New 
Earth  through  its  articulation  with  the  state 
experiment  stations,  through  educational  influ- 
ences, through  all  these  lines  of  practical  work 
indicated  by  the  bureaus,  and  through  the 
close  contact  of  many  of  its  agents  with  the 
people  as  they  travel  over  the  country,  but  in 
a  still  deeper  and  broader  manner  it  reaches 
the  people  through  its  publications.  During 
a  single  year,  1904,  the  Department  printed 
twelve  million,  five  hundred  thousand  copies  of 
its  various  publications.  Six  million,  five  hun- 
dred thousand  farmers'  bulletins  alone  were 
issued.  During  the  year  the  Department 
brought  out  nine  hundred  and  seventy-two 
distinct  publications,  three  hundred  and  twenty- 
nine  of  them  being  new.  They  contained 
twenty-two  thousand  pages  of  reading  matter, 
a  library  in  itself  for  those  who  are  learning, 
under  the  new  order  of  things,  how  valuable  is 
the  printed  word  when  it  is  sensibly  set  forth. 
There  are  over  four  thousand,  five  hundred 
people  directly  employed  in  the  Department, 

363 


THE   NEW  EARTH 

and  nearly  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
people   are   acting    as   special   correspondents 
throughout  the  world  without  compensation,— 
a  loyal  army  of  assistants,  which  attests  the 
interest  taken  in  the  work. 

Among  all  the  great  industries  of  America, 
its  colossal  manufacturing  activities,  its  vast 
commercial  interests,  domestic  and  foreign,  all 
the  intricate  network  of  professional,  business, 
and  labor  interests, —  among  all  classes  of 
Americans,  where  else  shall  we  look  for  such 
aid  as  this  which  the  national  government  is 
bestowing  free  of  all  cost,  upon  the  followers 
of  but  one  occupation  among  the  many?  It 
is  indeed  a  significant  commentary  on  the  im- 
portance of  agriculture  in  America.  It  is  a 
suggestion  of  the  universal  application  of 
Liebig's  principle,  "Agriculture  is  the  founda- 
tion of  the  riches  of  states."  It  is  a  command- 
ing recognition  of  the  dependence  of  the  nation 
upon  those  who  till  the  soil.  And  it  is  an 
equally  commanding  message  to  all  who  till 
the  soil  that  theirs  is  an  occupation  set  apart, 
bearing  the  august  stamp  of  the  nation  itself. 


364 


CHAPTER  XX 

THE   IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  FARM 


keynote  of  the  farm  life  of  to-day  is 
independence,  and  the  harmony  is  major. 
The  keynote  of  the  former  generation  was 
dependence,  and  the  music  was  minor  to  the 
end.  For  now  the  farmer,  and  by  this  may  be 
included  for  present  consideration  all  those 
who  earn  their  living  from  the  earth,  is  coming 
into  his  own.  He  has  passed  through  many 
preparatory  stages  and  the  road  has  been  thick 
with  thorns.  He  has  been  trained  in  the  harsh 
school  of  experience  and  has  been  graduated 
with  full  honors.  He  is  master  now,  servant 
no  longer. 

I  do  not  know  that  a  better  concrete  illus- 
tration of  this  can  be  found  than  that  afforded 
by  a  body  of  five  hundred  Iowa  farmers  whom 
I  visited  one  day  when  the  earth  was  falling 
into  the  mellow  mood  of  autumn.  They  lived 
in  a  rich  agricultural  region,  once  the  center 
of  a  great  wheat  -raising  industry  but  now 

365 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

given  up  to  diversified  farming,  a  line  of 
activity  which  has  had  a  marked  bearing  upon 
the  success  of  the  farmer  of  to-day.  Their  soil, 
sensibly  cared  for,  was  so  productive,  and  the 
demands  for  their  corn,  their  cattle,  their 
sheep,  poultry,  and  all  manner  of  food  supplies 
in  the  rough,  was  so  steady,  they  should  have 
been  of  all  men  most  independent.  But  for 
years  they  were  sadly  dependent,  even  after 
they  passed  the  ten-dollar-an-acre  period  and 
their  farms  were  rising  in  value  to  double 
or  quadruple  that  figure.  They  were  at  the 
mercy  of  others  who  were  not  merciful.  They 
had  patiently  endured  the  slow  strangulation 
of  greed. 

It  occurred  to  one  of  their  number  one  day 
that  they  were  like  other  men,  after  all, — like 
merchants,  bank  presidents,  railroad  managers, 
and  so  on,  and  quite  as  much  entitled  to  free- 
dom as  the  owners  of  the  railroads  that  were 
unfair  to  them,  or  the  dealers  in  agricultural 
implements  who  charged  them  too  much,  or 
the  merchant  of  their  little  town  who  steadily 
bled  them.  So  a  number  of  them  got  together 
and  talked  the  matter  over.  "Why  not  go 
into  business  ourselves?"  they  said.  "Why  not 

366 


THE   IMPORTANCE   OF  THE   FARM 

establish  a  plain  business  firm?  A  lot  of  far- 
mers could  make  up  a  firm,  surely,  as  well  as  a 
lot  of  towns-people ;  not  a  cooperative  concern, 
not  communal,  just  plain  business." 

The  idea  was  a  novel  one.  It  took  root.  It 
began  to  be  nourished  by  the  dismal  rains 
even  of  further  meanness.  It  grew  strong  and 
sturdy  under  the  winds  of  opposition.  A  firm 
of  five  hundred  farmers, — such  a  thing  under 
the  old  order  of  things  would  have  been  as 
preposterous  as  a  firm  of  five  hundred  doctors, 
or  ministers,  or  university  professors. 

But  the  leaven  was  at  work,  and  the  firm 
was  established.  A  manager  was  chosen  from 
their  own  number  "to  look  after  things,"  and 
they  began  business.  First,  they  said  they  had 
not  had  a  fair  deal  from  the  merchant  in  their 
little  town,  the  only  merchant  in  the  village, 
which  was  the  focal  municipal  point  for  their 
farming  region.  He  had  charged  them  his  own 
prices  for  his  wares,  and  paid  them  his  own 
prices  for  their  wares.  He  was  altogether  too 
thrifty.  The  farmers  said,  "As  a  firm  we  will 
now  buy  our  goods  at  wholesale  and  sell  them 
back  to  ourselves  at  a  slight  advance  to  cover 
expenses.  We  will  also,"  they  said,  "put  up  our 

367 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

own  grain-elevator  and  build  our  own  cattle- 
yards,  because  we  may  want  to  store  our  grain 
and  hold  our  cattle  until  we  get  what  seems  to 
us  a  fair  price  for  them."  The  railroad  com- 
panies said,  "Very  well;  if  you  people  do  this 
we  shall  be  obliged  to  put  up  a  grain-elevator 
at  another  point  several  miles  from  your  own 
and  to  draw  all  the  trade  away  from  you  by 
paying  more."  And  the  farmers  laughed  and 
said,  "Nothing  would  please  us  more,  for  we  are 
after  higher  prices,  and  if  you  can  pay  us  more 
than  we  can  pay  ourselves  we  are  that  much 
ahead:  the  law,  by  the  way,  compels  you  to 
carry  our  goods  whenever  we  want  them 
carried."  The  railroad  companies  saw  the 
point.  Then  the  implement  dealers  said: 
"You  men  must  buy  your  machinery  from  our 
regularly  appointed  agents  at  retail;  we  will 
not  sell  to  you  as  farmers."  And  again  the 
farmers  said,  "We  are  a  business  firm,  now; 
we  will  buy  of  you  if  we  can ;  force  you  to  sell 
to  us  by  law  if  you  refuse,  if  we  can ;  failing  in 
this,  we  will  manufacture  our  own  machinery." 
The  implement  dealers  saw  the  point  also. 
The  wholesale  dealers  in  all  sorts  of  materials 
the  farmers  must  have — coal,  salt,  fence  wire, 

368 


THE   IMPORTANCE   OF   THE   FARM 

flour,  provisions,  dry  goods,  clothing — saw  that 
the  farmers  were  now  the  only  firm  in  the 
region,  for  they  had  put  the  greedy  merchant 
to  flight  by  refusing  to  be  bled  by  him  longer, 
and  the  wholesalers  wanted  this  trade.  Every- 
body saw  the  point. 

Now  these  five  hundred  farmers  had  five  hun- 
dred farms.  They  were  worth,  on  an  average,— 
so  well  developed  were  their  farms  and  so 
stable  were  farm  values, — at  least  ten  thousand 
dollars  each.  Most  of  them  were  out  of  debt. 
So  the  new  firm  had  a  capital  back  of  it  of  five 
millions  of  dollars,  a  tidy  sum  in  case  of  a 
storm.  The  firm  could  afford  to  be  indepen- 
dent. 

Unfair  monopolies  growled  and  showed  their 
teeth.  Various  enemies  tried  various  tricks- 
mean  and  underhanded,  tricks  of  trade,  tricks 
of  the  market — but  the  farmers  were  not  so 
easily  taken  in  after  all.  At  first  they  were  in 
doubt  as  to  whether  or  not  they  would  succeed. 
Other  firms  fail;  indeed,  some  statistician  had 
shown  that  ninety-five  per  cent  of  all  success- 
ful business  men  had  failed  some  time  or  other ; 
so  they  might  fail.  But  they  did  not.  Their 
business  slowly  increased.  They  adopted  one 

369 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

fundamental  principle;  they  were  business 
men  and,  as  business  men,  they  had  no  fight 
upon  capital.  Monopolies  they  would  fight,  to 
the  death  if  necessary,  but  organized,  legiti- 
mate capital,  established  and  administered  in 
honesty,  they  welcomed  as  a  desirable  ally. 
Indeed,  were  they  not  in  a  sense  capitalists 
now  themselves? 

They  had  no  pet  theories  to  exploit.  They 
were  not  socialistic  nor  altruistic  nor  commu- 
nistic ;  they  were  not  populists  nor  farmers'  alli- 
ance men,  nor  grangers ;  they  were  not  theorists 
in  any  degree.  Individually,  they  might  hold 
to  any  opinion  they  wished,  but  collectively, 
they  were  a  plain,  matter-of-fact  business  firm. 

In  the  fifteen  years  that  these  farmers  have 
now  been  in  business,  they  have  prospered  far 
beyond  their  expectations.  They  have  con- 
quered, absolutely,  every  monopoly  that  has 
lifted  its  hand  against  them.  Their  actual  work- 
ing capital  is  twenty-five  thousand  dollars; 
it  is  never  allowed  to  be  more  than  this. 
Their  total  indebtedness  can  never  be  over 
five  thousand.  Two -thirds  of  the  members 
must  give  their  assent  before  any  money  may 
be  borrowed,  never  rising  above  five  thousand 

370 


THE   IMPORTANCE    OF  THE  .FARM 

dollars.  It  is  especially  provided  in  their  gov- 
erning rules  that  "no  shareholder  shall  sign 
any  bond,  or  sign,  endorse,  or  guarantee  any 
note,  bill,  draft,  or  contract,  or  in  any  way 
assume  any  liability,  verbal  or  written,  for  the 
benefit  or  security  of  any  person,  without  the 
written  consent  of  a  majority  of  the  directors.'' 
None  of  the  funds  may  be  loaned,  under  any 
circumstances,  to  anybody.  There  is  no  accu- 
mulation of  tempting  surpluses.  The  farmer 
is  paid  for  his  produce  at  the  highest  market 
price.  He  buys  his  supplies  at  wholesale,— 
flour,  provisions,  dry  goods,  a  piano,  what 
not, — plus  four  per  cent  added  to  cover 
expenses. 

The  firm  is  now  doing  a  business  of  nearly, 
or  quite,  one  million  of  dollars  a  year ;  it  has 
never  had  more  than  twenty-five  thousand 
dollars  capital ;  its  running  expenses,  including 
salaries,  average  less  than  four  thousand  dollars 
a  year ;  there  are  no  defalcations,  first,  because 
of  honesty,  and  second,  because  no  surplus 
ever  accumulates,  the  profits  being  distributed 
month  by  month.  I  question  whether  there  is 
another  firm  in  America,  or  in  the  world,  for 
that  matter,  that  can  show  such  a  volume  of 

371 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

business  on  such  a  capital  and  at  such  a  cost 
of  administration. 

Many  people  would  like  to  become  share- 
holders, but  the  line  is  drawn  fast  and  hard. 
No  man  can  join  unless  he  is  a  practical  farmer. 
The  by-laws  make  very  plain  what  a  practical 
farmer  is,  "one  who  makes  his  living  by  farm- 
ing, or  one  who  has  retired  from  the  farm  and 
is  not  engaged  in  any  business  that  will  in  any 
way  conflict  with  the  business  carried  on  by 
the  company." 

This  firm  of  farmers  is  not  bound  by  any 
speculative  ties ;  it  is  not  political,  religious, 
socialistic,  sociological;  it  is  not  anti-anything. 
It  is  a  firm  of  those  who  produce  that  without 
which  the  rest  of  the  world  would  die.  Can  it 
not  afford  to  be  independent? 

While  the  influence  of  this  body  of  Iowa 
farmers  is  spreading  far  and  wide,  so  that  other 
similar  firms  are  being  established,  the  farmers 
in  the  mass,  even  those  who  have  never  in- 
vestigated or  profited  by  this  plan,  are  coming 
to  see  that  independence  is  theirs  by  right,— 
that  if  they  wisely  carry  on  their  own  affairs, 
they  hold  the  key  to  the  situation.  It  has 
taken  many  years  for  the  farmer  to  learn  that 

372 


THE   IMPORTANCE   OF  THE   FARM 

he  must  learn.  He  has  come  to  know  now 
that  knowledge  is  power,  and  only  by  becom- 
ing broadly  educated, — and  with  him  his  wife 
and  his  sons  and  his  daughters, — can  he  hope 
to  hold  his  own. 

Time  was,  and  not  so  very  long  since,  either, 
when  the  most  feared,  because  the  most  power- 
ful, friend  or  foe  the  farmer  had  was  Wall 
street.  Today  the  great  body  of  the  West, 
essentially  a  farming  body,  has  become  abso- 
lutely independent  of  this  powerful  factor. 
Now  and  again  a  farmer,  grown  rich  in  his 
new  estate,  contracts  the  fever  of  speculation 
and  is  cured,  or  killed,  by  the  medicines  which 
Wall  street  so  adroitly  administers,  but  the 
mass  of  the  western  producers,  recognizing 
legitimate  uses  of  capital  as  never  before,  freed 
from  the  rant  and  cant  of  demagogues  whose 
only  capital  is  hatred  of  capital,  have  come  to 
see  that  their  occupation  is  a  business  in  itself 
as  much  as  any  other;  indeed,  far  more  than 
this,  that  they  maintain  a  great  manufacturing 
plant,  the  most  colossal  in  existence,  turning 
out  the  raw  material  for  the  preservation  of 
life  itself.  They  have  come  to  realize  that  they 
are  the  independent  factors,  the  millions  who 

373 


THE   NEW   EARTH 

must  be  fed,  the  dependents.  Woe  be  to  this 
world  if  ever  the  tillers  of  the  soil  adopt  the 
tactics  of  some  of  those  who  control  the  fin- 
ished products  of  the  soil! 

The  commanding  position  of  those  who  are 
engaged  in  the  activities  of  the  New  Earth  is 
shown  in  a  still  more  emphatic  manner  by  the 
magnitude  to  which  the  calling  of  agriculture 
has  attained.  The  value  of  farm  products  in 
the  United  States  in  a  year  now,  1906,  reaches 
the  enormous  sum  of  six  billions,  five  hundred 
millions  of  dollars,  a  sum  too  vast  to  be  com- 
prehended. The  report  of  the  Secretary  of 
Agriculture,  for  1904,  shows  that  in  two  years' 
time  the  farmers  of  this  country  have  produced 
wealth  exceeding  the  output  of  all  the  gold 
mines  of  the  world  since  the  discovery  of 
America  by  Columbus.  Is  it  too  much  to  say 
that  this  American  farmer  is,  by  rights,  inde- 
p.endent  ? 

In  a  single  month  of  their  busy  season  the 
hens  of  the  country  lay  enough  eggs  to  pay 
the  year's  interest  on  the  national  debt.  In  a 
year  they  produce  one  and  two-thirds  billions 
of  eggs,  enough  to  supply  every  American 
with  two  hundred  and  forty-five  eggs  a  year. 

374 


THE   IMPORTANCE   OF  THE   FARM 

From  the  corn  crop  of  a  single  year,  the  far- 
mers of  the  New  Earth  can  pay  the  interest  on 
the  national  debt  for  a  year,  the  entire  debt 
itself,  and  a  large  amount  of  the  actual 
expenses  of  the  government  for  the  year  in 
the  bargain.  In  1905,  the  corn  crop  reached 
the  highest  point  ever  known, — 2,708,000,000 
bushels.  Other  crops  in  the  same  year  were 
valued  as  follows:  Hay,  $605,000,000;  cot- 
ton, $575,000,000;  wheat,  $525,000,000;  oats, 
$282,000,000;  potatoes,  $138,000,000;  while 
dairy  products  reached  a  value  of  $665,000,000, 
an  increase  over  the  previous  year  of 
$54,000,000. 

The  products  of  the  New  Earth  in  the 
United  States  for  two  years  are  over  six  times 
as  large  as  the  capital  stock  of  all  the  banks  in 
America,  to  say  nothing  of  the  enormous  capi- 
tal invested  in  these  farms.  In  four  years,  1900 
to  1904,  the  farms  of  the  United  States  in- 
creased in  value  over  two  billions  of  dollars. 
For  the  five  years  ending  with  1905,  according 
to  an  estimate  by  the  Secretary  of  Agriculture, 
the  value  of  these  farms  increased  at  the  rate 
of  three  millions,  four  hundred  thousand  dol- 
lars a  day.  The  products  of  the  farms  for  the 

375 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

two  years  1903  and  1904,  were  twice  the  sum 
of  all  our  exports  and  imports  for  a  year,  and 
three  and  one-half  times  as  much  as  the  value 
of  all  minerals  produced  in  the  country,  includ- 
ing gold,  silver,  iron  ore,  coal  and  quarried 
stone. 

Indeed,  the  farm  of  the  New  Earth  is  the 
colossal  manufacturing  plant  of  all  history. 

And  the  new  man  has  learned  lessons  in 
thrift  as  well  as  in  agriculture.  He  has  learned 
how  to  keep  a  balance  in  the  bank  in  his  favor, 
as  well  as  how  to  raise  better  crops  and  have 
a  happier  home,  and  surround  himself  with  the 
minor  luxuries  and  all  the  comforts  of  modern 
life.  The  increase  in  the  bank  deposits  in  the 
state  of  Iowa,  a  typical  western  state,  from 
June  30,  1896,  to  October  31,  1904,  was  one 
hundred  and  sixty-four  per  cent;  in  Kansas, 
two  hundred  and  nineteen  per  cent;  in  Mis- 
souri, three  hundred  and  one  per  cent,  while 
the  increase  for  the  whole  United  States  in  the 
same  period  was  but  ninety-one  per  cent.  In 
savings  banks  in  the  same  period,  the  number 
of  depositors  in  Iowa  increased  two  hundred 
and  nine  per  cent ;  in  the  United  States  as  a 
whole,  thirty-six  per  cent.  In  the  southern 

376 


THE   IMPORTANCE   OF   THE   FARM 

states  in  1905,  bank  deposits  exceeded  one 
billion  of  dollars,  the  largest  ever  known. 

These  figures,  taken  in  connection  with  the 
value  of  the  great  plant  of  the  American 
farmer,  which  has  now  reached  the  unthinkable 
sum  of  twenty-one  billions  of  dollars,  suggest 
something  of  the  mighty  power  now  vested 
in  those  who  till  the  soil, — a  power  once  put 
in  combination  capable  of  carrying  an  influence 
outside  the  sweep  of  the  imagination. 

But  this  is  only  the  material  side.  Far 
beyond  this  lies  the  influence  of  the  American 
farmer  himself,  the  farmer  of  the  New  Earth. 
He  stands  out  unique,  the  first  really  repre- 
sentative man  in  a  calling  as  old  as  history. 
He  is  a  menial  no  longer,  he  is  dependent  no 
longer,  he  is  master  of  his  own  fortunes  and 
his  own  destiny.  And  these  fortunes  and  this 
destiny  he  looks  upon  clear-eyed  and  free  from 
egotism. 

I  asked  the  head  of  one  of  the  greatest 
horticultural  houses  in  Europe,  why  it  was 
that  the  workmen  we  saw  about  his  estate 
seemed  so  uniformly  gentle,  so  noticeably 
refined  of  face. 

"  It  is  because  of  the  flowers  and  the  plants," 

377 


THE    NEW   EARTH 

he  said,  "among  which  the  men  work:  they 
make  the  men  like  themselves." 

And  the  farm,  the  new  farm,  with  its  free 
life,  its  breath  of  the  open,  its  close  touch  with 
nature,  its  hard  but  never  menial  labor,  its 
refined  home  life,  its  articulation  with  all  that 
is  best  in  modern  life,  this  mighty  manufactur- 
ing plant  of  the  New  Earth,  is  turning  out  not 
only  the  unthinkably  valuable  products  and 
steadily  heaping  up  billions  upon  billions  in 
its  reserve,  and  maintaining  at  a  high  plane 
the  very  life  of  the  race,  but  it  is  manufac- 
turing men  and  women, — sane,  symmetrical, 
stocked  with  common  sense,  open  to  higher 
things,  receptive  and  retentive,  untainted  by 
speculation,  and  bearing  a  bitter  hatred  of  the 
greed  that  not  permanently,  but  with  infinite 
disgrace,  has  fastened  itself  upon  America. 

The  farmer  of  the  New  Earth  is  the  product 
of  the  New  Earth,  of  its  education,  its  enter- 
prise, its  invention,  its  research,  its  scientific 
investigation,  its  progress.  He  is,  in  a  still 
deeper  sense,  the  product  of  a  civilization  and 
the  citizen  of  a  Republic  which,  with  all 
shortcomings,  outranks  all  others,  ancient  or 
modern,  in  sweep  of  service  to  mankind. 

378 


By  the  Same  Auilwr 

NEW  CREATIONS  IN 
PLANT  LIFE 

AN   AUTHORITATIVE  ACCOUNT  OF   THE    LIFE  AND 
WORK    OF    LUTHER    BURBANK 

With  Fifty  Full-page  Illustrations 
CLOTH.         12sio.         91.75,  NET 

"  Not  less  wonderful  than  the  story  of  the  thornless  cactus  and 
the  seedless  plum  is  the  story  of  the  life  of  the  wonderful  wizard 
of  the  west.  The  author  of  this  book  shows  a  great  appreciation 
of  and  sympathy  with  the  unselfish  character  of  the  man  who  has 
done  so  much  for  the  world,  in  utility  as  well  as  beauty.  His 
methods  are  explained,  and  many  illustrations  aid  the  text  in 
elucidating  them." — The  Critic,  New  York. 

"The  first  full  and  authoritative  account  of  the  life  and  work  of 
Luther  Burbank,  concerning  whom  so  much  has  appeared  of  late 
in  American  magazines,  has  been  written  by  W.  S.  Harwood  under 
the  title  'New  Creations  in  Plant  Life.'  The  American  reading 
public  has  shown  its  disposition  to  read  with  avidity  everything 
published  about  this  wonderful  man,  and  we  have  no  doubt  that 
the  present  exposition  of  his  methods  will  meet  with  popular  favor. 
Mr.  Harwood  has  had  exceptional  opportunities  to  familiarize  him- 
self with  Mr.  Burbank's  remarkable  work  in  California,  and  all 
who  read  his  descriptions  of  the  various  aspects  of  the  work  may 
rest  assured  they  are  based  on  accurate  observation  authenticated 
by  Mr.  Burbank." — The  Review  of  Reviewt,  New  York. 

"This  volume,  prepared  by  one  who  is  in  hearty  sympathy 
with  Mr.  Burbank  and  who  realizes  some  of  the  peculiar  difficulties 
under  which  a  good  deal  of  his  work  is  carried  on,  is  by  far  the 
most  satisfactory  account  we  have  yet  seen  of  Burbank's  successful 
labors." — The  Evening  Post,  New  York. 

"We  can  recommend  this  volume  as  a  truthful  and  readable 
description  of  a  remarkable  career." — The  Nation,  New  York. 

"Thousands  will  be  interested  in  the  full  account  of  the  man, 
his  methods,  and  his  successes,  .  .  .  telling  very  enthusiastically 
the  story  of  Luther  Burbank  and  what  he  has  done." — The  Inquirer, 
Philadelphia. 

THE   MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

64-66   FIFTH   AVENUE  NEW   YORK 


By  L.  H.  BAILEY 

Professor  of  Horticulture  in  Cornell  University 
Editor  of  "The  Cyclopedia  of  American  Horticulture,"  etc.,  etc. 

CLOTH.         12>io.         $1.25,  NET 

"It  is  an  instructive  and  enlightening  volume,  full  of  human 
interest,  and  of  special  value  to  those  who  have  any  part  in  the 
great  work  of  education." — Toronto  Globe. 

"  They  are  written  in  Professor  Bailey's  usual  pleasing  style, 
and  will  lead  any  thinking  reader  to  a  closer  communion  with 
nature." — Rural  New  Yorker. 

"Professor  Bailey's  book  is  good  reading,  attractive  by  the 
simplicity  of  its  style  and  the  familiarity  of  its  illustrative  inci- 
dents and  allusions,  broadening  in  its  teachings  and  helpful  in 
Us  suggestions." — The  Plain  Dealer. 


A  SELF-SUPPORTING 
HOME 

By  KATE  V.  SAINT  MAUR 

Fully  Illustrated  from  Photographs  and  Drawings 
CLOTH.         12MO.         $1.75,  NET 

"It  is  worth  reading  about,  especially  as  the  writer  has  a 
clear  way  of  telling  things  that  are  worth  telling  and  cannot  fail 
to  be  helpful." — Minneapolis  Journal. 

"It  is  a  very  practical  and  helpful  book  for  the  amateur 
farmer  or  even  for  the  country  dweller  whose  gardening  does 
not  rise  to  the  dignity  of  farming." — The  Outlook. 

"  'A  Self-Supporting  Home'  is  both  an  interesting  narrative 
and  a  very  handy  and  practical  guide  to  life  in  the  country  on 
the  basis  of  a  small  income.  The  common  sense  practicality, 
which  gives  the  book  its  value,  is  attributable  to  the  fact  that 
these  are  actual  experiences  described  here."  —  The  Richmond 
Times  -  Dispatch. 

THE    MACMILLAN   COMPANY 
64-66    FIFTH  AVENUE  NEW  YORK 


THE  CYCLOPEDIA  OF 

AMERICAN 
HORTICULTURE 

By   L.    H.   BAILEY 

of  Cornell  University,  assisted  by 

WILHELM    MILLER 

And  many  expert  cultivators  and  botanists 

4  VOLS.    OVER  2,800  ORIGINAL  ENGRAVINGS.    CLOTH.   OCTAVO 
$20.00  NET  PER  SET.      HALF  MOROCCO,  $32.00  NET  PER  SET 

This  great  work  comprises  directions  for  the  cultivation  of  hor- 
ticultural crops  and  original  descriptions  of  all  the  species  of  fruits, 
vegetables,  flowers  and  ornamental  plants  known  to  be  in  the 
market  in  the  United  States  and  Canada.  "It  has  the  unique 
distinction  of  presenting  for  the  first  time,  in  a  carefully  arranged 
and  perfectly  accessible  form,  the  best  knowledge  of  the  best 
specialists  in  America  upon  gardening,  fruit-growing,  vegetable 
culture,  forestry,  and  the  like,  as  well  as  exact  botanical  informa- 
tion. .  .  .  The  contributors  are  eminent  cultivators  or 
specialists,  and  the  arrangement  is  very  systematic,  clear  and  con- 
venient for  ready  reference." 

"We  have  here  a  work  which  every  ambitious  gardener  will  wish  to 
place  on  his  shelf  beside  his  Nicholson  and  his  London,  and  for  such  users  of 
it  a  too  advanced  nomenclature  would  have  been  confusing  to  the  last 
degree.  With  the  safe  names  here  Riven,  there  is  little  liability  to  serious 
perplexity.  There  is  a  growing  impatience  with  much  of  the  controversy 
concerning  revision  of  names  of  organisms,  whether  of  plants  or  animals. 
Those  investigators  who  are  busied  with  the  ecological  aspects  of  organisms, 
and  also  those  who  are  chiefly  concerned  with  the  application  of  plants  to 
the  arts  of  agriculture,  horticulture,  and  so  on,  care  for  the  names  of  organ- 
isms under  examination  only  so  far  as  these  aid  in  recognition  and  identifi- 
cation. To  introduce  unnecessary  confusion  is  a  serious  blunder.  Professor 
Bailey  has  avoided  the  risk  of  confusion.  In  short,  in  range,  treatment  and 
editing,  the  Cyclopedia  appears  to  be  emphatically  useful;  .  .  .  a  work 
worthy  of  ranking  by  the  side  of  the  Century  Dictionary-" — The  Nation. 

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the  most  satisfactory.  They  may  be  called  manuals  of 
practice,  and,  though  all  are  prepared  by  Professor 
BAILEY,  of  Cornell  University,  they  include  the  opinions 
and  methods  of  successful  specialists  in  many  lines,  thus 
combining  the  results  of  the  observations  and  experi- 
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THE  HORTICULTURIST'S  RULE  BOOK.     By  L.  H.  BAILEY.    312  pp. 

75  cents. 

THE  NURSERY-BOOK.  By  L.  H.  BAILEY.  365  pp.  152  illustrations.  $1. 
PLANT-BREEDING.  By  L.  H.  BAILEY.  293  pp.  20  illustrations.  $1.25  net. 
THE  FORCING-BOOK.  By  L.  H.  BAILEY.  266  pp.  88  illustrations.  $1.00. 
GARDEN-MAKING.  By  L.  H.  BAILEY.  417  pp.  256  illustrations.  $1.00. 
THE  PRUNING-BOOK.  By  L.  H.  BAILEY.  545  pp.  331  illustrations.  $1.50. 
THE  PRACTICAL  GARDEN-BOOK.  By  C.  E.  HUNN  and  L.  H.  BAILEY. 

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Volume  I — Ready  shortly 

CYCLOPEDIA  OF 
AMERICAN  AGRICULTURE 

Edited  by  PROF.  L.  H.  BAILEY 

of  Cornell  University,    Editor  of  " Cyclopedia  of  American  Horticulture"; 
author  of  "Plant  Breeding";      Principles  of  Agriculture,"  etc. 

With  100  full-page  plates  and  about  2,500  illustrations  in  the  text 

TENTATIVE  SYNOPSIS  OF  CONTENTS 

VOLUME  I 

PART  I — GENERAL  CONSIDERATIONS— Agricultural  Regions — Farm  Industries- 
Layout  of  Farm — Equipment  and  Capital  Required — Farm  Buildings- 
Farm  Water  Works — Farm  Machinery— Adornment  of  Farm  Premises. 

PART  II — CLIMATOLOGY — General  Definition  and  Scope — Atmosphere— Tem- 
perature— Pressure — Circulation— Atmospheric  Moisture — Storms — Pre- 
cipitation— Weather— Climate. 

PART  III — THE  SoiL-^-General  Considerations-^Origin  and  Formation — Kinds 
and  Characteristics — Properties — Germ  Life  in  the  Soil — Moisture— Til- 
lage— Fertilizers — Waste  and  Renovation — Soil  Surveys. 

VOLUME  II— FARM  CROPS 

PART  I — PLANT  PRODUCTION — The  Plant — Environment — Plant  Improvement 
— Farm  Management — Plant  Introduction — Classifications— Industries. 

PART  II— INDIVIDUAL  FARM  CROPS  (suggested  treatment) — General— Geo- 
graphical Distribution  and  Extent — Propagation  and  Cultivation- 
Varieties — Harvesting  and  Preservation— Uses  and  Preparation  for  Use- 
Manufacture — Obstructions  to  Growth— Marketing — Exhibiting— Tools 
— History, 

TIMBER  CROP  (FARM  WOODLOT) 

Introductory — Factors  of  Forest  Production — Methods  of  Forest  Growi us— 
Systems  of  Forest  Cropping — Improving  and  Caring  for  Crop — How  to 
Treat  a  Mismanaged  Woodlot — Uses  of  Different  Woods— Home  Utiliza- 
tion of  the  Crop— Measuring  and  Marketing  Forest  Crops. 

VOLUME  III— FARM  STOCK 

PART  I— GENERAL  PRINCIPLES— Introduction— Kinds  of  Animals — Kinds  of 
Animal  Industry — Origin  and  Breeding  of  Domestic  Animals— Physiol- 
ogy— Feeding— Hygiene,  Sanitation  and  Management. 

PART  II  — OUTLINE  FOR  TREATMENT  OF  DIFFERENT  KINDS  OF  ANIMALS — General 
Introductory  Discussion— Distribution  and  Extent— Classification  of 
Breeds  and  Types— Breeding— Feeding  and  Feeds— Management  and 
Hygiene— Products— Diseases  and  Disabilities— Judging  and  Scoring  — 
Marketing — Exhibiting— History. 

PART  III— ANIMAL  INDUSTRIES  OR  TECHNOLOGY — Dairying — Dressing  and  Cur- 
ing of  Meats— Storage— Refrigeration— Fertilizer  Manufacture. 

VOLUME  IV 

THE  FARM  AND  THE  COMMUNITY  (Economics,  Social  Questions,  Organizations, 
History,  Literature,  etc.) 

Full   prospectus  •with   sample 
pages  sent  free  on  application 


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This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


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UBRAKY 


